Foreign Desk Report
LONDON: The United Kingdom (UK) has condemned Israel’s announcement to move forward with construction of 1,077 housing units in Givat Hamatos, southern Jerusalem, urging Israel to reverse the decision.
In a statement, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and James Cleverly MP ,UK Minister for the Middle East and North Africa said “The UK condemns Israel’s announcement to move forward with the construction of 1,077 housing units in Givat Hamatos, in southern Jerusalem. This follows the announcement on 20th February to advance 2,200 units in the existing settlement of Har Homa”.
James Cleverly further said that settlement construction in these highly sensitive areas undermine the viability of a future Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem. “The UK’s position on Israeli settlements is clear: they are illegal under international law and damaging to renewed efforts to launch peace negotiations. We urge Israel to reverse this decision immediately”, he said.
A ceasefire brokered by Egypt and the United Nations took hold on the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday after two days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. Islamic Jihad had fired 80 rockets towards Israeli communities along the Gaza border since Sunday, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, while Israel attacked sites in Gaza and Syria that killed three members of the militant group.
No casualties were reported on the Israeli side of the frontier and many of the rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile system. The violence came a week before an Israeli election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term in office after two inconclusive votes.
The frontier fell quiet early on Tuesday, after a Palestinian official said Israel and Islamic Jihad had reached a “reciprocal and simultaneous ceasefire” mediated by Egypt and the United Nations. “This round is over and Palestinian resistance promised its people that every act of aggression by the Zionist occupation would be met by a reaction from the resistance,” Khader Habib, a senior Islamic Jihad official, told Reuters. The Israeli military said it reopened roads near the Gaza border on Tuesday that it had closed when the fighting began and that train services would resume in the area.
