Palestinians appeal to UN over Israeli settlement homes

The Palestinian UN ambassador is accusing Israel of an "extreme barrage of illegal behaviour" over the last 10 days and demanding that the UN Security Council take action.

Riyad Mansour says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval to build 6,000 new homes for settlers is "unprecedented," saying it exceeds the number for all of 2016.

He says Netanyahu is "destroying the two-state solution by the continuation of this illegal behaviour."

Mansour and the head of the Arab Group at the UN spoke to reporters Wednesday after meeting with Ukraine's UN ambassador, Volodymyr Yelchenko, the current council president, to protest the action on new settler homes and call for the council to implement the resolution it adopted in December condemning Israeli settlements and demanding a halt to new construction.

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  Part of the Israeli settlement of Psagot, background, overlooking Palestinian houses, in a suburb of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Oct. 24, 2016. (Nasser Nasser / AP)