Fury as Israel 'legalises' West Bank camps

Israel is in the final stages of legalising new West Bank settlements, a violation of its commitments to the United States and to an internationally backed peace plan.

The “road map” peace plan – which envisages the formation of a Palestinian state by 2005 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – requires Israel to remove dozens of unauthorised West Bank outposts established since March 2001 and to freeze construction at existing settlements.

But Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said today that Israel was in the final stages of granting “legal” status to some West Bank outposts and had also granted a tender to expand the West Bank settlement of Negohot.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the moves undermined the road map, and called on the United States to halt the Israeli measures.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said last week he would take “unilateral steps” to ease tensions between Israel and the Palestinians should the sides fail to reach agreement. Israeli media reported Sharon was putting together a plan that would include dismantling some West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements.

Jewish settlers have been establishing unauthorised hilltop outposts since 1998. They have enjoyed the quiet support of hard-line Israeli governments, which have provided soldiers to guard them.

Although the government calls some of the outposts “illegal,” it has allowed settlers to pave roads to the hilltop areas, which are often made up of no more than a few trailers and a handful of settlers.

Other outposts that are not being “legalised” will be dismantled, Boim said, adding that dozens of unauthorised outposts have been removed in the past three years. Israeli human rights groups say very few of the outposts have been dismantled, and those that have were quickly re-established.

Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinians after the soldiers disturbed a group of men apparently setting up an ambush on a road used by Jewish settlers, Israeli military sources said.

The sources said that according to a preliminary investigation, troops spotted four men, at least two of them armed, heading after nightfall toward the Kissufim road, leading to the Gush Katif group of settlements in the southern Gaza Strip.

When the men spotted the soldiers they split up and two tried to flee in a waiting car. The soldiers fired, killing the two and also the getaway driver, the sources said, adding that the road had been the site of many ambushes in the past. They said at least one weapon was found in the vehicle.

A search was launched for the remaining two men.