JERUSALEM — Israel announced plans Tuesday to build 2,500 more settler homes on the West Bank, moving to step up construction just days after the swearing-in of Donald Trump brought to power a U.S. administration seen as friendly to the settlement movement.

“We are building — and we will continue to build,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer did not answer directly when asked about Trump's reaction. “Israel continues to be a huge ally of the United States,” Spicer said. “He wants to grow closer with Israel to make sure that it gets the full respect that it deserves in the Middle East.”

Trump also has expressed a desire to broker a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians, and siding with Israel on such a matter could hurt U.S. credibility.

Netanyahu repeatedly clashed with President Barack Obama over settlement construction.

Obama, like the rest of the international community, considered the building of settlements on occupied lands claimed by the Palestinians to be an obstacle to peace. Those tensions boiled over last month when the Obama White House allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the settlements as illegal.

Trump criticized Obama for going against Israel and promised a new approach after taking office, raising hopes inside Israel's nationalist government for a new era in relations.

Trump has already invited Netanyahu to visit the White House next month, and both men, after speaking Sunday, promised close coordination on a range of sensitive matters.

Netanyahu's office would not say whether he had consulted with the White House before Tuesday's announcement, but just a day earlier, the prime minister told a meeting of his Likud Party that there should be no surprises for the new president.

The construction plans were announced by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said in a statement that he and Netanyahu agreed on the approval “in response to housing needs.”

He said most of the housing units will be built in settlement “blocs,” densely populated areas where most settlers already live and which Israel wants to keep under its control under any future peace deal with the Palestinians. Some 100 homes were slated for two smaller settlements.

The approvals were for early stages of home development, meaning construction is not expected to begin anytime soon.

“This decision destroys the two-state solution,” said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official in the West Bank. “We call on the international community to hold Israel accountable immediately.”

The Palestinians want the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War — for their hoped-for state, a position that has wide international backing.

Trump has signaled a softer approach to the settlements.

Both his designated ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, now a top aide and Mideast envoy, have deep ties to the settler movement.

Friedman and Kushner's family foundation have both been contributors to Beit El, one of the settlements mentioned in Tuesday's announcement.