Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Thursday that a plan to significantly expand a settlement near occupied East Jerusalem had won approval, and that it would thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Mr. Smotrich said that about 3,400 new housing units would be built in key Israeli-occupied territory. But the announcement does not mean the plan will necessarily get final approval — a procedural step remains.

The government body that approves such plans, the Supreme Planning Council, generally publishes information about its decisions within days or weeks after a meeting but does not tend to issue statements. It did not make one on Thursday about Mr. Smotrich’s statement.

The announcement comes after Australia, Britain, Canada, France and other nations pledged to soon recognize Palestinian statehood amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Those countries say that recognition is part of an effort to restart negotiations over a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“This plan buries the idea of a Palestinian state,” Mr. Smotrich said on Thursday, addressing a gathering of journalists and settlement leaders in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. “Anyone in the world today who tries to recognize a Palestinian state will receive an answer from us on the ground. Not in documents, not in decisions or declarations — but in facts.”

The settlement announcement drew swift international reaction.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry, which in a statement on Thursday “condemned in the strongest terms” both the proposed expansion and Mr. Smotrich’s comments, called them “extremist racist statements” and “a flagrant violation of international law.”

The ministry called the move “an assault on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent, sovereign state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital.”

Peace Now, an Israel organization that tracks and opposes settlement expansion, noted that a subcommittee of the Israeli council that handles settlement planning had rejected all objections to the proposal at a meeting earlier this month.

A final approval hearing was set for next week, “in record speed,” the group said.

If the planning council gives its final approval, work on roads, water, sewage, electricity and other infrastructure could begin within months, and housing construction could start within about a year, Peace Now estimated.

Hagit Ofran, who is part of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project, noted that it was unlikely that Mr. Smotrich had announced “such a dramatic decision” without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s consent.

In the past, she said, Mr. Netanyahu has blocked meetings on settlement approvals — like the one set for next week — after coming under pressure from foreign governments.

Mr. Netanyahu has not spoken publicly about the latest proposal, and his office did not respond to a request for comment. A representative for Mr. Smotrich also did not respond to a request for comment.

Much of the international community views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegally occupied by Israel and intended for the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state through negotiations. The International Court of Justice last year issued an advisory opinion finding that the settlements were illegal and calling for Israel’s withdrawal.

The settlement expansion project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, an existing settlement in the West Bank, is especially controversial because it would separate East Jerusalem from the West Bank. It would geographically complicate the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Israel captured the occupied territories in a war with Arab states in 1967, and over the years, Israeli governments have increasingly allowed the establishment of Jewish settlements in those areas. About three million Palestinians and 700,000 Jewish Israelis now live in those lands.

Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023 set off the war in Gaza, violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians has markedly increased.

Mr. Smotrich, who is himself a settler, last year responded to the recognition of a Palestinian state by several European countries with the approval of new settlements.

In a statement on social media, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responding to the minister’s announcement, on Thursday expressed its “unequivocal rejection” of Israeli policies expanding settlements and displacing Palestinians. It called on the international community to compel Israel to halt the plans.

The chairman of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh told Wafa, the Palestinian government’s official media arm, that Israel’s approval of the settlement plan “falls within the framework of a de facto creeping annexation policy” and “aligns with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision of ‘Greater Israel.’”

In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Smotrich called on Mr. Netanyahu to annex the occupied territories — land he refers to by the biblical names Judea and Samaria.

He also thanked President Trump and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who has long expressed support for Israeli settlements. The Israeli minister called Mr. Trump and Mr. Huckabee “true friends of Israel like we’ve never had.”

A senior State Department official, responding to a request for comment on Mr. Smotrich’s announcement, said that “a stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region.”

Johnatan Reiss and Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.