Israel freezes plans for new settlement in WBank

Jerusalem, Jan 19: Israel has put on hold plans to build a new settlement on a former army base in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli security source said today.

Israel drew criticism when it announced last month a plan to turn the former base at Maskiot, in the Jordan Valley, into a permanent housing complex for Jewish settlers.

''A few weeks ago the defence minister ordered a freeze on the plans regarding Maskiot in order to conduct a deeper investigation,'' the source said.

The United States said that Israel's plan to settle 30 Jewish families in Maskiot violated terms of the US-backed 'road map' peace plan, which calls for a halt to building Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The World Court has branded Israeli settlements on land captured in the 1967 West Asia war as illegal. Israel disputes this.

The families planning to move to Maskiot lived in two of the 21 settlements Israel dismantled in the Gaza Strip in 2005 under a ''disengagement plan'' promoted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Some 260,000 settlers live in the West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians.

Reuters