Israeli settlers in the West Bank have started construction on more than 600 homes since the end of a partial 10-month building freeze on September 26th, the Tel Aviv-based monitoring group Peace Now said.
"Much of the construction is outside the settlement blocs and some of it is inside," Hagit Ofran, the head of the organisation's settlement-watch unit who is writing a report that will be published next week, said today.
The building may further complicate US efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that began September 2nd, only to stall when the freeze was lifted. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday urged the sides to renew the negotiations, which are meant to establish an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and guarantee Israel's security.
"These figures are very alarming," said Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghassan Khatib said today in a phone interview. "They pose a serious challenge to the American efforts."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not return to negotiations unless the moratorium is extended, adding that settlement building was eating away at land intended for the state.
The Arab League has given the US until early November to persuade Israel to stop the building.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that it is politically risky for him to resume the freeze. Most of the parties in Mr Netanyahu's ruling coalition support the settlements.
Naftali Bennett, head of the Yesha Council, which represents more than 300,000 settlers in the West Bank, said today the 600-home figure was "in the ballpark," though it is probably slightly lower. "Jews have an absolute right to build here and we are going to keep on building," he said.
Israel has built about 120 settlements in the West Bank since the late 1960s. Another 100 smaller settlements, which Israel calls outposts, were built during the past decade.
The United Nations says the settlements are illegal, and the International Committee of the Red Cross says they breach the Fourth Geneva Convention governing actions on occupied territory. President Barack Obama has said the settlements are not legitimate.
Israel says the settlements don't fall under the convention because the territory wasn't recognised as belonging to anyone before the 1967 Middle East war, in which Israel prevailed, and therefore isn't occupied.
Bloomberg