Israel appropriated a swath of 990 acres in the West Bank on Sunday and declared the Palestinian area south of Bethlehem to be Israeli "state lands," local media reported. 
 
 According to the veteran anti-settlement group Peace Now, the declaration is the largest of its kind since the 1980s and stands to change the area dramatically. 
 
 The group said the Bethlehem area lands are earmarked for a massive expansion of the small settlement of Gevaot, which could grow into a town connected to the so-called Green Line that marks the border that stood prior to the 1967 war. 
 
 The announcement of the appropriation was made by COGAT, the military unit implementing the policies of Israel’s government in the Palestinian territories it controls. 
 
 The settlement is located in the West Bank area Israel calls the Etzyon Bloc, which is one of several settlement blocs Israel reportedly seeks to keep and annex under a future peace agreement with the Palestinians. 
 
 Benjamin Netanyahu Amir Cohen / Associated Press Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a special cabinet meeting at the Ashkelon Shore regional council in Bat-Hadar, Israel, on Sunday. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a special cabinet meeting at the Ashkelon Shore regional council in Bat-Hadar, Israel, on Sunday. (Amir Cohen / Associated Press) 
 
 Palestinian officials slammed the decision. 
 
 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ office demanded that the decision be rescinded, and warned it would further escalate tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. 
 
 The announcement reflects Israel’s intent to “wipe out any Palestinian presence on the land” and impose a “de-facto one-state solution,” senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi told foreign media. 
 
 Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “destroying any diplomatic horizon” and weakening Abbas with the settlement policy. The largest appropriation of West Bank land in three decades was a “stab in the back” to Abbas and all Palestinian moderates, Oppenheimer wrote in a Facebook post. 
 
 Settlement leaders, however, welcomed the announcement. Yigal Dilmoni of the Yesha Council settlement umbrella group called the move an “appropriate Zionist response to terror attacks against Israel.” 
 
 Reportedly, the government had decided to declare the area state lands shortly after three Jewish teenagers were abducted and killed in the same West Bank area in June. 
 
 Sobelman is a special correspondent ||||| The land is in the Etzion bloc near Bethlehem. It may be used for possible Jewish settlements and a new Israeli city to be called Gevaot. 
 
 Israel's army says it is declaring the land as "state-owned" under orders from political leaders. It is in reaction to the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teenagers in June near Bethlehem. 
 
 Israel has named three Palestinians as suspects. The murders and the revenge killing of a Palestinian teen by Israelis helped spark the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. 
 
 The U.S. State Department is calling the Israeli land takeover "counterproductive" in peace efforts and is asking Israel to reconsider. 
 
 Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat is condemning the move as part of what he calls Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and their occupied land. 
 
 A spokesman for the anti-settlement group Peace Now, Yariv Oppenheimer, said the settlement expansion will hurt the chances for further Israeli peace negotiations with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. 
 
 "This new declaration of expansion of settlement by the Israeli government is very significant. We don't remember such a big announcement in the last one or two decades," said Oppenheimer. "This is a stab in the back of Abbas and the moderate people in the Palestinian Authority. Instead of strengthening the Palestinian Authority versus Hamas, Israel is showing its harder side and actually in a unilateral move: expand settlement activity and destroy the chance for re-negotiation with the Palestinian Authority.'' 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a staunch advocate for expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, land that Israel captured during the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel often has drawn condemnation, though, for its settlement expansion, which most countries consider illegal under international law. 
 
 About 550,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem. 
 
 
 

– In a move the US calls "counterproductive," Israel has made a huge land seizure in the West Bank and is expected to use it to expand Jewish settlements. The Israeli anti-settlement group Americans for Peace Now says the 990-acre seizure in an area called the Etzion bloc—one of the parts of the West Bank that Israel wants to keep under any future deal with the Palestinians—is the biggest appropriation of its kind since the 1980s, the Los Angeles Times reports. A spokesman for the group calls the move a "stab in the back" to Palestinian moderates. The appropriation is being seen as revenge for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the area in June, which sparked the recent fighting in Gaza, Voice of America notes. Israel says the area has been declared "state land" not owned by Palestinians, the New York Times reports, but the local mayor says the area is planted with olive trees and belongs to Palestinian families. A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority says the move will "further deteriorate the situation," and officials will seek to have the decision reversed.