Israel to build settler homes after Palestinian attack

Israel said on Sunday it would build several hundred new homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank, a day after a Palestinian attack killed an Israeli couple and three of their children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened late on Saturday a special session of a ministerial committee on settlement to approve the step after pledging publicly the attack would not curb the construction of homes for Jews in the West Bank.
Troops searched outside the settlement of Itamar, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, for the attacker or attackers who snuck into the home of Ehud and Ruti Fogel and knifed them and three of their children to death as the family slept.
A statement issued by Netanyahu's office said “ministers have decided to authorise construction” of several hundred housing units in West Bank settlement blocs. Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper put the number at 500.
The decision was likely to draw international dismay and harden Palestinian resolve not to return to peace talks frozen over Netanyahu's refusal to extend a 10-month moratorium that expired in November on housing starts in West Bank settlements.
The World Court has deemed Israeli settlement in the West Bank, territory captured in a 1967 war as illegal. Palestinians fear the Israeli enclaves will deny them a viable state.