The United States said Israel's demolition of four Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem today was highly provocative and an obstacle to restoring calm between Israelis and Palestinians.
"We're troubled by reports that Israel has demolished several Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem," said a US official, using language approved in the State Department.
"These demolitions are highly provocative, undermine confidence and trust between the parties and can only make it much more difficult to restore calm and move forward with implementation of the Mitchell committee recommendations," added the official, who asked not to be identified.
"There must be a halt to the demolition and destruction of Palestinian homes and property and to incursions into Palestinian territory," he said.
It was the latest in a series of public disagreements between the Bush administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which has sent Israeli troops into areas previously under Palestinian control.
Israel has defied repeated calls by the United States that it withdraw immediately from all areas occupied after Palestinian militants killed an Israeli Cabinet minister on October 17. The United States wants the two sides to carry out the plan proposed in April by former US Sen. George Mitchell, including a cease-fire, a cooling-off period and confidence-building measures leading to new peace talks.