JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Sunday approved the return of Jewish settlers to a contested house in the West Bank city of Hebron, his office said.

The supreme court ruled last month that settlers were the lawful owners of the building in the heart of the occupied Palestinian city, ending a legal dispute lasting nearly seven years.

“Following the court decision... Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon today (Sunday) approved habitation of the house,” his office said in a statement.

It added that the area military instructor had been told to allow “a limited number of families to the house.”

The Peace Now settlement watchdog condemned what it called a “sad decision from the ministry of defense to approve and support the most radical rightwing settlers and approve them a new settlement in Hebron.”

The ministry “and the government showed again that they have no interest in the two-state solution and its negotiation,” its spokesman Lior Amihai told AFP, referring to US-sponsored negotiations aimed at a two-state peace settlement.