JERUSALEM, Feb 15 (Reuters): Israel plans to build a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank that could house settlers evacuated from the Gaza Strip after a withdrawal this summer, Israeli officials said today.
The move was certain to amplify concerns among Palestinians that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to quit Gaza is a ruse to cement an Israeli hold on much of the West Bank.
Palestinians want a state in both occupied territories.
Israel's Housing Ministry said it planned to build a new settlement, Gvaot, in the main West Bank enclave of Gush Etzion.
Under a US-led "road map" to peace with the Palestinians, Israel is required to halt expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
But US President George W.
Bush said last year that Israel could expect to keep some West Bank land under any eventual peace accord.
Housing Minister Isaac Herzog said that some 8,000 Gaza settlers slated for evacuation would be offered new housing in outlying areas of Israel but could opt for the West Bank instead.
"There is no doubt that in carrying out the disengagement plan ...
there is a need to expand towns in the Negev desert and the Galilee, and on that we are placing our priority," Herzog told Israel Radio.
"This will not prevent a person who has received his compensation to go and buy an apartment where he wants, and if he wants to buy one in Gush Etzion he would be totally within his rights," he said.