Israel expands, seeks US okay

MAALEH ADUMIM, West Bank – Israeli trucks and bulldozers moved ahead with construction of a West Bank road yesterday, on a hilly rock-strewn area where Israeli officials say they will build thousands of new housing units.

The project, intended to link this sprawling Jewish settlement to Jerusalem six kilometres away, defies an internationally supported peace plan demanding a halt in Israeli settlement activity. The project must go through a lengthy series of approvals by several government ministries before the first bricks can be laid.The United States publicly condemned a smaller plan to expand Maaleh Adumim earlier this week, but Israeli officials said they will seek US approval for this and other similar expansion projects.Meanwhile, Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun where they have been conducting an operation for six weeks to clear areas used as launching pads for rocket attacks against Israeli towns and settlements.One military official said, however, the troops will redeploy around the town.The road construction at Maale Adumim is concentrated on the hardscrabble hills that lie in the western extremity of the Judean desert.As trucks and bulldozers worked under a searing summer sun, local Palestinians walked in the direction of A Tor and Issiwiya, two Arab neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem.US Mideast envoy, Elliot Abrams, was to discuss the Maaleh Adumim plans during a meeting in Jerusalem later yesterday with prime minister Ariel Sharon.The State Department in Washington said this week the United States opposes all settlement construction.- Nampa-APThe project must go through a lengthy series of approvals by several government ministries before the first bricks can be laid.The United States publicly condemned a smaller plan to expand Maaleh Adumim earlier this week, but Israeli officials said they will seek US approval for this and other similar expansion projects.Meanwhile, Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun where they have been conducting an operation for six weeks to clear areas used as launching pads for rocket attacks against Israeli towns and settlements.One military official said, however, the troops will redeploy around the town.The road construction at Maale Adumim is concentrated on the hardscrabble hills that lie in the western extremity of the Judean desert.As trucks and bulldozers worked under a searing summer sun, local Palestinians walked in the direction of A Tor and Issiwiya, two Arab neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem.US Mideast envoy, Elliot Abrams, was to discuss the Maaleh Adumim plans during a meeting in Jerusalem later yesterday with prime minister Ariel Sharon.The State Department in Washington said this week the United States opposes all settlement construction.- Nampa-AP