The settler population in the West Bank is estimated at 531,000: in late 2012 the population of the West Bank settlements was 341,400; in late 2011 there were 190,423 individuals living in Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chose to allow the expansion of a West Bank settlement in the wake of the stabbing death of a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl, an Israeli official told CNN Sunday.
The Israeli military says it struck several militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a Palestinian rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot.
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 day before, a Palestinian teen stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom in a West Bank settlement.
The extraordinary measures include locking down the entire Hebron district, home to 700,000 people, Netanyahu said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the attacker as Mohammed Tarayra, 17, from Bani Naim, a village east of Hebron.
A two-state solution is put forward in the report as the only way to achieve lasting peace between the two that would also take into account the Palestinian aspirations for a state and Israel’s security concerns.
A military spokeswoman said the forces had razed the homes of Issa Assaf and Annan Hammed, who were shot dead during a December 23 attack near Jerusalem’s Old City.
Since last September, Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars that have killed 33 Israelis and two American tourists.
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 monthly duties now amount to between $130 million and $155 million, Israeli and Palestinian officials say.
Hebron has always been a flashpoint in the conflict, with hundreds of Jewish settlers living under heavy military guard in the heart of the city among some 200,000 Palestinians.
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The attacks followed a period of relative calm after six months of violence from October in which more than 200 Palestinians and around 30 Israelis or foreign nationals were killed. The last attempt, led by the United States, collapsed in April 2014.
