"It is deeply troubling, in the wake of Israel and the US concluding an unprecedented agreement on military assistance designed to further strengthen Israel's security, that Israel would take a decision so contrary to its long term security interest in a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Palestinians," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
A man pushes a shopping cart outside Shufersal, Israel's largest supermarket chain, in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Mishor Adumim near Jerusalem.
The United States strongly condemned the Israeli government's decision to advance a plan that would create up to 300 new settlement units deep in the West Bank, the State Department said on Wednesday, saying it would damage prospects for a two-state solution.