Jewish settlements are expanding in the occupied West Bank despite the building freeze demanded by a US-led peace plan, a newspaper reported today.
Citing an Israeli government report, the left-leaning Haaretzdaily said the findings came from a secret two-year study that came across what the newspaper called "rampant construction".
The report accused some unnamed Israeli officials of intentionally deleting records from a settlement database in order to conceal the scale of the expansion.
"Construction there has been ongoing for years, in blatant violation of the law," the paper quoted the report as saying.
Israel undertook to freeze settlement growth and dismantle unauthorised settler outposts as part of a "road map" for peace with the Palestinians, but neither side has done much to follow the plan, which has also been undermined by violence.
Although Israel says it has the right to continue building inside existing settlements, Haaretzsaid construction had often been beyond the settlement boundaries and sometimes on privately owned Palestinian land.
Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip - territories Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 Middle East war. The World Court brands all the settlements illegal, though Israel disputes that.
Haaretzdid not give figures for the reported settlement expansions. Settlement watchdog group Peace Now said tenders for 952 new settlement homes were issued in the first eight months of August this year, a rate close to that of 2005.
Peace Now also cited a Defence Ministry decision to expand the boundaries of four West Bank settlements last May. According to the watchdog group, the ministry decided to rescind that decision but has not yet done so.