New Israeli plan to expand settlements

Israel has disclosed on Thursday plans to build 72 residential units in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank in a flagrant violation of the Washington backed peace Roadmap plan, which calls for halting the expansion of settlements.

A spokesman for the Israeli ministry of housing, which extended invitations for bids to the project in press advertisements, said that the construction work in Beitar Eleit settlement near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem might start within one year.

On the other hand, the Palestinian minister of planning Ghassan al-Khatib said that this work implies provocation, not only against the Palestinian people, but also the international community.

Meantime, the Palestinians on Thursday held a central mass rally in Gaza marking the beginning of celebrations on the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

In a speech before 10,000 Palestinians who raised Palestinian flags before the headquarters of the legislative council in Gaza, the Palestinian prime minister Ahmad Qurei' stressed the need that the withdrawal from the occupied Gaza will be the first step on the road of withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.