国际英语新闻:Netanyahu unfreezes settlement construction plans for additional 1, 800 houses

JERUSALEM, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unfrozen previously-shelved construction plans of 1, 800 housing units in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, several hours after the Housing Ministry announced it will build 1, 500 new housing units, the Ha'aretz daily reported Thursday.

According to the report, Netanyahu ordered the Civil Administration, the Israeli body governing operations in the West bank, to unfreeze construction plans for 1,800 housing units that were shelved in the past three months.

The move, according to the daily, is another aggressive response to the new national Palestinian government on Monday in Ramallah, alongside the earlier announcement to build 1,500 houses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The order comes a week after Netanyahu met with leaders of the settlement movement, in which he assured them they have his support, after the latter complained that the last housing tenders were published in January.

Israel occupied West Bank territories during the 1967 Mideast War and annexed parts of east Jerusalem. The territories are slated to be part of a future Palestinian state and the settlements make it difficult to establish a state with territorial continuity for the Palestinians.

In an interview to Army Radio following Thursday's earlier announcement of 1,500 housing units, U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said that the United States "objects to the construction in the settlements and announcements over such construction." The Palestinians slammed the decision and said they would approach the U.N. in demand to halt the settlement construction.

The decision was also slammed by Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, who said the decision is "another policy mistake that will only make it more difficult for us to rally the world against Hamas," the Ha'aretz daily reported.

Netanyahu urged world leaders not to go ahead and recognize the Palestinian national unity government. But on Monday, the U.S., one of Israel's key allies, said it will work with the Palestinian government, disappointing officials in Jerusalem.

In response to the establishment of the new unity government, Netanyahu and other Israeli top ministers decided to uphold the decision from late April to suspend talks with the Palestinians as long as there is a Hamas-backed government and reallocate tax money Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to Israeli companies, to pay off the Palestinian Authority's debts.

The cabinet also authorized Netanyahu to impose further sanctions against the Palestinians, saying that it would hold the national government responsible for any attack against Israel originating from the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.