France’s foreign ministry has called on Israel to drop a plan to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank, calling the project “a serious violation of international law”, AFP reports.

A ministry spokesman said that France “condemns with the utmost firmness” the Israeli decision to build 3,400 homes in a particularly contentious area of the occupied West Bank.

Several countries have said that the project, called E1, undermines hopes for a contiguous future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.