UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on 19 August 2026 that the Israeli government's publication of a tender for the E1 settlement project was "an unacceptable and destructive act." In a Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office statement, he said E1 would cut across the heart of Palestine and risks separating the West Bank from East Jerusalem, endangering the viability of a two-state solution. He said all settlements damage that prospect and are a flagrant breach of international law.

Miliband said he had told Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar that the Israeli government must halt E1 plans immediately, retract the tender and stop all settlement expansion. The Israeli Chargé d'Affaires was summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, where the UK set out its objection to the move by the Netanyahu government and demanded an immediate reversal. The statement also described settler violence and terrorism as catastrophic for Palestinian communities.

The Foreign Secretary said that in the coming weeks the UK would set out a comprehensive set of measures responding to Israeli government policies, protecting the viability of a Palestinian state and targeting sanctions at those involved in illegal settlement expansion. Those measures were described as planned at the time of the statement, not as enacted.