Ariella Plachta

Special for USA TODAY

TEL AVIV, Israel — Emboldened by Donald Trump's presidency, Israel approved 2,500 settler homes in the West Bank on Tuesday, a sign the new U.S. chief executive will tolerate construction that the Obama administration and United Nations only recently condemned.

“We are returning to normal life in Judea and Samaria,” Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, using the Israeli government's names for the West Bank, which Palestinians claim as theirs for a future independent state.

The decision was agreed upon “in response to local housing needs,” Lieberman said.

Trump has not specifically endorsed expanded settlements, but he has vowed to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a break from U.S. policy that calls for negotiations between Israel and Palestinians on the future of the city.

“We’re building — and will continue to build,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Facebook after Israel approved the new settlements.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the latest settlement plans, saying they would “promote extremism and terrorism,” according to the Times of Israel.

On Sunday, Netanyahu had his first phone call with Trump since he became president. The two leaders discussed ways to “advance and strengthen the U.S.-Israel special relationship” and to increase security and stability in the region, the White House said.

A Defense Ministry statement said about 100 of the units were approved to be built in isolated settlements such as Beit El.

Beit El has received donations from Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser, Jared Kushner, and the new president's designated U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

Under international law, Israeli settlements — built on land occupied by Israel — are considered to be illegal. Some 600,000 Israelis live in east Jerusalem and on the West Bank. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.

The Obama administration had condemned the settlements, saying Israel and Palestinians should first negotiate borders for a separate Palestinian state.

The U.N. Security Council weighed in last month by passing a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Trump assailed the vote, as well as the Obama administration for allowing the resolution to pass rather than using its veto.