Israeli settlement freeze expires with no word on extension (Roundup)

Sep 26, 2010, 23:12 GMT

Jerusalem - The 10-month building freeze imposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the West Bank officially ended at midnight Sunday (2200 GMT) with no comment from his government on whether it is considering an extension.

Jewish settlers rallied to celebrate the looming expiration of Israel's building freeze in the West Bank, while gunfire against cars on a road outside Hebron left a pregnant Israeli hospitalized.

Thousands of Israeli settlers gathered Sunday across the West Bank to mark the end of a 10-month construction moratorium imposed by the Israeli government and due to expire at midnight (2200 GMT).

In Jerusalem, a small demonstration by Israelis peace activists urged Netanyahu to extend the freeze, without which Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to quit newly restarted direct peace negotiations.

Shots were fired into two Israeli cars late Sunday near the Palestinian city of Hebron.

The gunfire took place near the Jewish settlement of Teneh Omarim, near Mount Hebron in the West Bank. A woman who was nine months pregnant and her husband suffered leg wounds in one car, with no injuries reported in the second car, the Israeli army said.

The injured couple drove themselves to the Israeli city of Beer Sheva, where the 35-year-old woman was hospitalized and later gave birth to a boy, while the Israeli army launched a search for the assailants, a military spokesman said.

It was the third attack in the last month against Jewish settlers living in the West Bank. The first two shootings occurred in the days around the September 2 start of direct peace negotiations between Netanyahu and Abbas.

The attack on Sunday, four hours before the end of the moratorium, was not claimed by any militant group.

The end of the Israeli freeze Sunday is at the crux of renewed Middle East peace talks, as Abbas has warned that he would walk out of the negotiations if Israel starts building again in on occupied Palestinian territory.

Israeli residents of the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Netafim marked the imminent end of the freeze on Sunday by symbolically laying the cornerstone of a kindergarten 'to protest the injustice caused to 35 babies born here this year,' said Gershon Mesika, a representative of the community.

He blamed Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak for allowing the moratorium, which put on hold settlers' plans to build kindergartens, homes and synagogues.

'This is a racist decision, which only forbids Jews to build their home in their country. ... It is natural that this decision arrives to an end,' Mesika said.

Settlers brought tractors and construction materials to the ceremony.

In other locations - such as the settlement of Revava - some 2,500 demonstrators released 2,000 balloons to celebrate the new housing units that can be built after the freeze ends.

'These are homes that have already received final permits,' said a source close to lawmaker Danny Danon, a member of Netanyahu's ruling Likud party.

Danon, one of the organizers of the rally in the West Bank, sent a message to the United States administration of Barack Obama saying that Washington should respect the Israeli 'democracy and right to live in a sovereign Israel.'

While Netanyahu had urged the settlers on Sunday to avoid provocations, Danon celebrated 'continuation of the Zionist vision from today.'

Dozens of Israeli leftists gathered in tents erected in front of Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem urge the extension of the freeze 'to give peace a real chance,' said Yariv Oppenheimer, spokesman of the Israeli organization Peace Now.

Netanyahu has faced heavy international pressure to stop construction in the West Bank, and representatives of his government have maintained intense contacts during the last two days in Washington and New York with Palestinian and US officials in order to reach an agreement on the issue.

The shooting Sunday near Hebron took place as violence erupted in parts of East Jerusalem. Palestinian demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails at Israeli security. One Israeli security officer was injured and three Palestinians arrested.