The Palestinians demanded on Thursday that Washington take “serious steps” against Israeli settlement building, after the Jewish state announced plans to build 1,500 new settler homes. “It is time for the American administration to take serious steps against what the Government of Israel is doing,” Nimr Hammad, an adviser to President Mahmud Abbas, told AFP. Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel has invited bids for 1,500 new homes in Jewish settlements in retaliation for a new Palestinian Government backed by Hamas, his office said earlier on Thursday. Of the new homes, 400 will be in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem with the rest elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, the ministry said. “We condemn this decision which affirms that PM Benjamin Netanyahu is a liar and is not interested in the two-state solution,” Hammad said. Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina warned the Palestinians would “respond in an unprecedented way,” but did not elaborate.