JERUSALEM — Israeli municipal authorities say they have issued building permits for 558 Jewish settler apartments in war-won east Jerusalem, sought by the Palestinians for their state.

The municipality says a local planning committee approved the building in the neighborhoods of Har Homa, Neve Yaakov and Pisgat Zeev, built on land Israel captured in the 1967 war and later annexed. Most of the international community considers them illegal settlements.

The city says the building projects received initial approval years ago.

Lior Amihai of the settlement watchdog group Peace Now says the new approvals are "shameful" at a time when the two sides are trying to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.