More settlement construction works are underway

Israel has not taken any single decision to freeze Jewish settlement construction works in the West Bank and on the contrary it has lately unfrozen new areas of land for more construction and accelerated construction works on a number of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said Monday.

The sources quoted Israeli reports that the government had approved the construction of 900 residential units in the Jewish settlement of Alfei Menashe near Nablus on the West Bank in addition to some 370 apartments that were approved for building three weeks ago. According to Israeli figures, there are at least one thousand Jewish families living currently in the settlement of Alfei Menashe and the addition of buildings will at least double the settlement's population in less than five years.

Moreover, the Israeli Finance Ministry had recently approved a government plan, the first of its kind, which accepted all applications for the unfreezing of lands for the purpose of building between 25,000 to 30,000 residential units east of Modi’in, over the so-called green pre-1967 borders between the West Bank and Israel. The plan is expected to enter its course of construction next year, sources said.