Britain condemns Israel settlement move
On Sunday, Israel announced the appropriation of land in the Etzion Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem, a move which an anti-settlement group said was the biggest such claim in 30 years.
“The UK deplores the Israeli government’s expropriation of 988 acres (1.54 sq miles) of land around the settlement of Etzion,” British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement which echoed US calls to reverse the decision.
“This is a particularly ill-judged decision that comes at a time when the priority must be to build on the ceasefire in Gaza. It will do serious damage to Israel’s standing in the international community,” he said.
Some 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4m Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory that the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The United States said it sees Israel’s announcement of a land appropriation for possible settlement construction in the occupied West Bank as “counterproductive” to peace efforts and urged the Israeli government to reverse the decision, a State Department official said. “We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity,” the US official said.
“This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue is counterproductive to Israel’s stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians.”
“We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision,” the official said in Washington.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the Israeli move and called for the decision to be revoked. He told the Palestinian news agency WAFA that it “leads to deterioration in the situation.”
The Israeli housing ministry said the announcement is just the first step and it will be several years before anything is built there.
The military said opponents have 45 days to appeal Sunday’s decision.
Peace Now, an Israeli group monitoring settlements, said it is the biggest “land confiscation” since the 1980s. “The new declaration will allow to expand the settlement even further,” it said
Thousands of Israeli children in areas near the Gaza Strip went back to school after spending the summer in bomb shelters as rockets rained on their communities during the 50-day Israel- Hamas war, while schools in Gaza remained shuttered as the territory recovered from the fighting. The start of school brought a sense of joy and excitement to rocket -scarred communities in southern Israel, but the signs of the fighting remained fresh. In the southern city of Ashdod, employees at the “Pashosh” kindergarten, which was struck by a rocket, removed shrapnel marks off the walls and slides ahead of the students’ arrival.
“We are a little scared but we are excited,” said Ronit Bart, a resident of Kibbutz Saad and an English teacher in its school.
Her 11-year-old daughter, Shani Bart, said it felt a “little bit weird” to suddenly be going back to school. “There were some difficult times and we didn’t leave our houses at all,” she said.
At least 223 Gaza schools, either run by the UN refugee agency or the Hamas government, were hit in the fighting, including 25 that are too damaged for use. Israel has accused Hamas of using civilian buildings such as schools for military purposes.
“I have two children who are supposed to go to school. They ask me ‘when we will go to school?’,” said Haitham Abu Attah, another displaced Gazan.
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