Tel Aviv, Israel (AHN) – In less than a month after Israel’s construction ban expired, Jewish settlers have begun building over 600 homes in the disputed West Bank region. The construction comes at a time when Middle East peace talks were already on the verge of collapse.

Now, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to boycott talks until Israel renews the ban on partial construction.

Peace Now, the leading voice of Israeli public pressure for peace, said that construction has resumed four-times faster than what it had been before the ban. Spokesman Yariv Oppenheimer said that a detailed report is likely to be released on Monday.

Another Peace Now official, Hagit Ofran, said: “I estimate that work has started at about 600 housing units since the end of the construction freeze, and I’m looking to complete the survey in order to know the exact number, and it is at different stages of construction. In some places, it is only leveling the ground that has started and in others, it’s the very foundation that is now being dug.”

Responding immediately to this development, Palestinians vehemently denounced the move and said that the constructions were aimed at preventing them to establish a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, United Nations Envoy Robert Serry described the construction reports as “alarming” and declared that it was “illegal under international law” and “will only further undermine trust.”

Former President Jimmy Carter, who is on a visit to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, also criticized Israel over the move.

Expressing his fury after visiting east Jerusalem flashpoints, Carter said, “The suffering here under occupation and the deprivations of people in Gaza are evidence of the improper policies of the government of Israel.” “We will continue to work on a peaceful solution where the Israelis will withdraw from east Jerusalem, and let this be the capital of a Palestinian state,” he added.

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