Israeli settlers have started building at least 600 homes since the end of a building ban on September 26, a pace four times faster than before the freeze began last year, Peace Now said on Thursday.
 
"In our estimation, building has started on between 600 and 700 new housing units in less than one month, which is four times the pace of construction since before the freeze," Peace Now's Hagit Ofran told AFP, referring to the moratorium that began at the end of November 2009.
 
In the meantime, the Associated Press also wrote that settlers have begun building new homes at a quick pace since the government lifted its moratorium on West Bank housing starts - almost 550 in three weeks, more than four times faster than the last two years.
 
In an extensive report Thursday morning, the AP said that many of the homes are going up in areas that under practically any ‘peace’ scenario would become part of a Palestinian state, a trend that could doom US-brokered talks.
 
According to the AP's count, ground has been broken on 544 new West Bank homes since Sept. 26, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lifted a 10-month freeze on new settlement building.
 
The survey, while not comprehensive, marks the most extensive effort yet to quantify the construction. It was based on visits to 16 of the West Bank's more than 120 settlements as well as phone calls to more than four dozen settlements and interviews with construction workers and mayors.
 
"This figure is alarming and is another indicator that Israel is not serious about the peace process, which is supposed to be about ending the occupation," said Ghassan Khatib, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' self-rule government in the West Bank.
 
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