JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a tender for 1,200 housing units in the E1 corridor connecting Jerusalem to the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim.

The tender was part of 20,000 housing units to be constructed in the West Bank that were announced Tuesday by Israel’s Housing Ministry.

The list of communities includes Efrat and Alon Shvut and other communities in the Gush Etzion bloc, Maale Adumim, Kochav Ya’akov and Eli.

The Prime Minister’s Office nixed the E1 housing hours after the tenders were announced. Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel told the Israeli media that the publication of the tenders is a standard procedural matter.

The Palestinians claim that building in the E1 corridor would cut off Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, break up the territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state and sound the death knell to a two-state solution.

Israel’s government argues that bypass roads would maintain contiguity.

The Palestinians began setting up outposts in January in the E1 corridor. Two months earlier, the Israeli government approved plans to build settlement housing in the area in response to the Palestinians’ decision to appeal to the United Nations General Assembly for enhanced statehood status.