The issue of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories is already a tense one, however the recent announcement has drawn additional ire from the worldwide community as it came just days after an global report warned that such actions were putting in doubt the possibility of a two-state solution.
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“The reason for the continuation and the diminishing and declining prospects for the two-state solution is not incitement”.
The reports said the 600 homes for Palestinians would be built in Beit Safafa, an Arab neighbourhood that straddled the pre-1967 war line between Israeli-controlled West Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Maale Adumim mayor was informed of the decision on Sunday night, a spokesman for his office told AFP.
The United States, the European Union and many others in the worldwide community have called for a halt to settlement building.
The channel said the approved 800 units include 560 housing units in Ma’ale Adumim settlement, while the remaining 240 others will be allocated to the settlement neighborhood of Pesgat Ze’ev and Har Homa.
More than 200 Palestinians – mostly attackers, Israel says – have also been killed in that period.
The move came one day after a 13-year-old girl was stabbed to death inside the settlement.
The assailants were shot and killed by Israeli guards during the attack.
On Friday, hours after Tarayra, Mark and Habash were killed, Israel announced a lockdown in Hebron as it searched for the gunmen involved in Mark’s killing.
The amount is to be cut by the equivalent of the fiscal support paid to militants’ families, Netanyahu’s office said.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stands beside them at Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem September 15, 2010.
The tender for the construction has been suspended more than a year ago.
“We are using various means, including aggressive measures that we have not used in the past”, Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
There were no immediate reports about casualties among the People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), it said, adding that some of the rockets missed their targets and hit a village near Ameriyah district in western Baghdad, wounding several civilians.
BAGHDAD – A rocket barrage hit a place near Baghdad global airport on Monday, targeting a camp housing an exile Iranian opposition group, a police source said.
The expansion of the settlements is illegal under worldwide law.
“We were hoping that the Palestinian leadership would issue a pacifying and restrained statement, but unfortunately it does the opposite”, said COGAT in a statement. Four Israelis were killed in the attack and others were wounded.
The violence had subsided in recent weeks, before a deadly shooting at a Tel Aviv cafe by two Palestinians on June 8 and last week’s attacks.
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During a recent visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon condemned Palestinian attacks as “terrorism” but also said Israel must act to address “key underlying causes of violence”.
