Ground was broken in the West Bank for the first new Israeli settlement in two decades, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

Netanyahu had vowed to build the settlement to replace Amona, a settlement outpost built on private Palestinian land that was dismantled in February following an Israeli Supreme Court ruling. Pro-settlement hard-liners who dominate Netanyahu's coalition had pressed him to keep that promise.

"After decades, I have the privilege to be the prime minister to build a new community," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter.

Source: .khaleej Times