Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, has approved a plan to construct hundreds of new homes in an unauthorised outpost in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an Israeli rights group said on Tuesday in a report that appeared to defy Washington’s calls for a freeze on settlement growth.

Mr Barak, whose nod is needed for any construction in the West Bank’s Jewish settlements, allowed 240 housing units to be built and 60 existing residences to become legalised in an outpost northwest of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, according to Bimkom, a Jerusalem-based group specialising in planning issues. A spokeswoman for the defence ministry had no immediate comment.