ISRAELI Defence Minister Benny Gantz is seeking the approval of 5,000 illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank as friction deepens in the country’s fragile coalition government.

He has called for the High Planning Council, which has not convened for more than six months, to approve the construction plans in what is seen as a bid to embarrass beleaguered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to a news report on Israel’s Channel 12, the plans would see a major expansion in the occupied West Bank, where new settlement has ostensibly been on hold for the past six months.

Mr Gantz, who entered a power-sharing agreement with Mr Netanyahu in April to form a national emergency government, has written to ask for the committee to meet this week to approve the plans.

Commentators see it as manoeuvring by the Blue & White party leader, predicting a fourth election in just over two years.

“If Netanyahu did not convene the High Planning Council, he would be blamed,” the Channel 12 report said.

Israel’s settlement programme is deemed illegal and a breach of the Geneva Convention. Despite this, at least 500,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements, about 75 per cent of them in the occupied West Bank.