Haaretz quoted an unidentified Israeli official as saying the new homes slated for the settlements were aimed at “sweetening the pill” for right-wingers upset by the construction plans for Beit Safafa and seeking a strong response to recent deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
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The government has also approved plans for building 600 homes for Palestinians in East Jerusalem – a step which had been opposed by Education Minister Naftali Bennet because the planned homes were on the same site as a proposed Israeli settlement. Most of the world considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate.
The Palestinian Authority has chose to halt all dealing with the Middle East Quartet after it published a report criticising the Palestinian government and its commitment to the peace process, the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported today.
The US State Department said on Tuesday that if more settlements are to be built in the West Bank, they will serve as an obstacle to the so-called “two-state solution”.
The Quartet report also called on Palestinians to halt attacks and incitement to violence.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed disappointment that the Quartet did not call for full Israeli withdrawal to lines that existed before the Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in a 1967 war.
This comes in addition to the array of steps already taken up by the Israeli government in the wake of the brutal murder of 13-year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a United States citizen, by a Palestinian assailant on Thursday.
Prior to the attack, Tarayrah had praised other terrorists on social media, and posted that he too wished to die a “martyr’s death” before murdering Hallel Yaffa Ariel as she slept in her bed in her family home.
Also on Friday, 48-year-old Israeli Michael Mark was killed after his auto was sacked on by suspected Palestinian gunmen south of Hebron.
Following a week of terror attacks in which two Israelis were killed in the Hebron hills, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a set of new security measures to be taken by security forces in the region.
The soldiers also kidnapped two Palestinians from Meithaloon and Saris towns, south of Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Israel routinely demolishes homes of Palestinian assailants in what it says is a means to deter further attacks.
More than a dozen arrests of Palestinians believed to be involved in violence have been carried out in the past few days.
In reaction to the stabbing, Netanyahu pledged to “strengthen” Israeli settlements across the West Bank.
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Peace talks collapsed in April 2014 and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.
