JERUSALEM: The Zionist state of Israel confirmed on Thursday it was planning to grab a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation.

In an e-mail sent to Reuters, COGAT, a unit of the Defence Ministry, said the political decision to seize the territory had been taken and “the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands”.

The usurpation, first reported by Israel’s Army Radio, covers 154 hectares (380 acres) in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on Wednesday denouncing the land seizure, which is the largest appropriation in the West Bank since August 2014.

“Settlement activities are a violation of international law and run counter to the public pronouncements of the Government of Israel supporting a two-state solution to the conflict,” Ban said in a statement.

The United States, whose ambassador angered Israel this week with criticism of its West Bank policy, said late on Wednesday it was strongly opposed to any move that accelerates settlement expansion.

“We believe they’re fundamentally incompatible with a two-state solution and call into question, frankly, the Israeli government’s commitment to a two-state solution,” Deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

In a development likely to further upset Europe, Israeli forces demolished six structures in the West Bank funded by the EU’s humanitarian arm. The structures were dwellings and latrines for Bedouins living in an area known as E1 — a particularly sensitive zone between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.