Jerusalem's municipal Planning and Construction Committee authorized a plan to build 278 houses in East Jerusalem, the second of such move this week, Xinhua reported according to Israeli media.
It is the second time during this week that the committee approved a housing plan in East Jerusalem beyond the Green Line, on lands Israel annexed during the 1967 War. On Monday, the committee authorized the construction of about 500 housing units in the neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.
Plan includes 216 housing units in the Ramot neighborhood, beyond the pre-1967 border, and 62 in the Har Homa neighborhood.
"This move comes as the Palestinian (National) Authority is trying to take unilateral step in international organizations like the United Nations," an official source told Israel's Walla news website, referring to the Palestinians' recent attempt to seek a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem without negotiations.
Israel suspended its latest round of negotiations with the Palestinians in April, following the establishment of the Palestinian unity government by Fatah and its rival Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week called for advancing new housing units in East Jerusalem.
A month ago, Jerusalem municipality granted its final approval for the construction of 2,612 housing units in Givat Hamatos, just prior to Netanyahu's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, escalating tensions between the two allies.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem during the 1967 Mideast War, which is now home to more than 300,000 Palestinians. The Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinians and the international community are against the construction of Jewish housing units there, especially in areas that would make it difficult to form a continuing territory between the West Bank and East Jerusalem within a future Palestinian state.
Israeli officials, however, maintains that Jerusalem is Israel' s "undivided and eternal" capital, insisting that the Israelis have a right to build settlements there.