The Israeli ‘West Bank Civil Administration’ planning committee on Wednesday approved the building of 1,313 units in several settlements.

And the Peace Now NGO, which is an anti-settlement group that monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, said in a statement that more units were expected to be approved on Thursday.

“Netanyahu is moving ahead at full steam toward solidifying the de facto annexation of the West Bank,” the statement read.

The UAE announced normalization of its relations with Israel on August 13.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed the agreement at the White House on September 15 with the attendance of President Donald Trump of the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani.

Emirati officials claim the normalization deal was needed to stave off further annexation of Palestinian land and save the so-called two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli authorities, however, say annexation plans are not off the table.

Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital. They view the normalization as betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Soldiers deployed tear gas and attempted to separate protesters and Israeli settlers, one of whom could also be seen shoving a member of the press.

Violence has broken out frequently between the inhabitants of Asira al-Qibliya and the nearby Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, which was built on land confiscated from the Palestinian village.

Settlers from the area have reportedly frequently attacked villagers.

Hussam Abu al-Rub, the Palestinian deputy minister for religious affairs, said Israeli settlers attacked the mosque located in the West Bank after midnight, spray painting anti-Palestinian slogans in Hebrew, and then hurling firebombs inside that burned a part of the structure, the Indian Express reported.

The mosque in el-Bireh, near Ramallah, is on a hilltop opposite an Israeli settlement. On one of its walls read the slogan: “A siege on the Arabs, not on the Jews.”

“Had the firebomb got to the carpet floor of the prayer hall, the mosque would have burned completely,” he said. “The Israeli government is responsible for the attack because they are the ones who opened the way for settlers to take our land and terrorize our people.”

Israeli police had no immediate comment and there was no claim of responsibility. But it appeared to be the latest case of the so-called “price tag” attacks that hard-line nationalist Israelis have been known to carry out against Arabs in recent years.