UN envoy to the Middle East, “Nikolai Mladenov,” in a report to the UN Security Council, accused “Israel” to continue to build settlements at a high pace, considering it a challenge to the demands of the Council to stop the expansion of settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to the report published by the agency “Agence France Presse”, “The Israeli government is using a provocative speech to support the campaign of new settlements.”

He said: “The construction of settlements was concentrated from June to September, mainly in East Jerusalem, with plans for approximately 2,300 new units, an increase of 30% from last year.”

“Illegal Israeli settlement activity continues at a high pace, in a consistent pattern throughout the year,” Mladenov said in the report. Nine months ago, the UN Security Council adopted a controversial resolution calling for an end to settlement construction, which was approved after the United States refused to use the veto but abstained from voting.

The United Nations considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law, and has repeatedly called for an end to its expansion on land that is part of a future Palestinian state.

The UN envoy noted that continued settlement expansion “makes the two-state solution increasingly impossible.”