Jerusalem – Israel has approved a new settlement in the West Bank to house former Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, breaking a promise to the U.S. to halt home construction in the Palestinian territories.
Construction in the northern West Bank town of Maskiot began months ago, but the project received final approval from the Defense Ministry only last week, said Dubi Tal, head of the Jordan Valley regional council.
Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the construction and urged the government to revoke its authorization, saying it violated the spirit of cooperation inaugurated by a meeting Saturday between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“What message are they trying to send?” Erekat asked.
The settlement will house 23 families who were evacuated when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year, and will eventually house 100 families, Tal said. “I estimate that within two or three weeks the foundations for temporary housing will begin,” he said.
Olmert has signaled in recent weeks that he is ready to make broad territorial concessions to the Palestinians under a final peace settlement, but he has also said he wants Israel to retain large settlement blocs. The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of a future independent state.
Under the stalled, U.S.-backed “road map” peace plan, Israel pledged to freeze all settlement expansion, while the Palestinians promised to crack down on militants. Neither side has followed through.
“The U.S. view on settlements remains unchanged,” said Geoff Anisman, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. “The U.S. continues to urge both sides to meet their road map obligations and to avoid taking steps that could be viewed as predetermining the outcome of final status negotiations.”
Saturday’s Olmert-Abbas summit sought to build on momentum from an Israeli cease-fire with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which took effect last month.
Olmert made a series of gestures to the moderate Palestinian leader, offering to lift some West Bank checkpoints and unfreeze hundreds of millions of dollars in withheld tax funds.
On Sunday, Olmert indicated he might release some Palestinian prisoners in the coming days, softening his long-standing opposition to such a move.
Despite the truce, Gaza militants launched seven rockets into Israel on Tuesday, hitting a house in the town of Sderot and seriously wounding two people, Israeli officials said. The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops shot and seriously injured a Palestinian near the fence separating Israel and the Gaza Strip.
In an effort to push forward with peace efforts, Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, will meet next week in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, an Israeli government official said.
The official did not say what day it would take place.
