Settlers set up homes in new Bethlehem outpost to 'deepen Israeli hold' over Jerusalem

Israeli media on Friday reported that settler groups placed the "first temporary homes" in a new settlement established on Wednesday night by illegally grabbing Palestinian land in the Gush Etzion area near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

The move was publicly announced Thursday by council head Yaron Rosenthal, who made no attempt to obscure the symbolism or intent, Israel Today reported. 

The news website quoted Rosenthal declaring, "the return to the ancestral city of King David and Rachel as a national and spiritual triumph."

The report said that the "new village" near Bethlehem deepens Israeli hold over the strategic corridor connecting Gush Etzion to Jerusalem.