Under the terms of the roadmap, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied territories

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel is considering a massive expansion of major settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank to house settlers who are to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip, an Israeli newspaper revealed Tuesday, June 15.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had ordered the Israeli military authorities in the occupied Palestinian territories to submit within three months plans to expand the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the south of the occupied West Bank , Maariv said.

Gush Etzion settlers showed Mofaz detailed plans to build some 5,300 housing units when he toured the area on Monday, June 14.

"I told the settlers that they should submit their plans and that every plan would be examined independently," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Mofaz as telling the paper.

The daily added that Mofaz was expected to tour two other settlement blocs, Maale Adumim and Ariel, in the next few weeks and examine the possibility of building more housing units there.

Under the terms of the floundering US-backed roadmap peace plan, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement activity in the occupied territories.

On his tour, Mofaz further announced that he and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have authorized a new budget of NIS 300 million to fortifying settlements outside the separation wall, Israel ’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

Gush Etzion is meant to be included within the controversial barrier, separating it from the Bethlehem area.

Mofaz said construction will begin in two months, the paper added.

It said the government approval was given for building more sections of the 700km-long wall in the northern West Bank , which will be relatively short stretches of fence around the settlements of Ariel, Immanuel, Kedumim, and Shavei Shomron.

The United Nations said that the Israeli wall marked illegal annexation of Palestinian territory and must be condemned by the world community.

The first phase of the barrier was completed in July 2003 in the northern West Bank .

The defiant Israeli government approved last October a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.

Sharon’s Blessing

Marriv also quoted officials in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office as saying that the hawkish premier welcomed the idea of expanding the Gush Etzion bloc in the framework of his Gaza pullout plan.

All 7,500 Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip are to be evacuated as part of Sharon 's so-called disengagement plan.

But Sharon has made clear that, in turn for the withdrawal, Israeli control over other settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank would be strengthened.

"The prime minister himself said that in the wake of the disengagement plan, settlement blocs, including the Etzion Bloc, would be strengthened," one source said.

Likud members massively rejected a first version of Sharon’s plan in a ballot last month.

After sacking  on June 4 two ministers of the far-right National Union who were opposed to the plan, Sharon got a conditional cabinet approval of his scheme.

US President George W. Bush has also said that it is "unrealistic" to expect Israel to cede control of all the West Bank settlements.

He promised Sharon that no US administration would pressure Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and that the Palestinian refugees would not return to their original homes inside what is now known as Israel .

Bush’s guarantees were slammed by the Arab world as  as a new Balfour promise.