Israeli settlers to resume West Bank construction

Israel allowed its 10-month settlement construction freeze in the occupied West Bank to expire at midnight, defying a U.S. call to extend the moratorium and risking a Palestinian withdrawal from peace talks.ù

Settler leaders said they would begin erecting some 2,000 homes in the West Bank as early as next week.

Minutes after the moratorium expired, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to continue "expedited, honest talks" to achieve a peace deal within a year.

Gershon Baskin, head of the Israel-Palestine Centre for Research and Information, IPCRI, says he believes the settlements are not the main issue.

“The issue is not settlements,” he told Vatican Radio, “the issue is ending the Israeli occupation, the issue is the Israeli border between the Palestinian state and the Israeli state, the issue is the nature of Palestinian sovereignty. These are the real issues that need to be negotiated.”