Meanwhile, the Israeli government’s plan to build a new settlement inside the West Bank has drawn rare criticism from the Bush administration. On Wednesday, the State Department said the new settlement would violate existing agreements and harm future peace negotiations. Israeli officials say the settlement will house up to 100 families who lived in the Gaza Strip until Israel withdrew settlements there last year. Israel had pledged to freeze new settlement activity under the U.S.-backed road map. Meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad criticized Israel’s recent pledge to resume strikes inside the Gaza Strip.

Hamas spokesperson Ghazi Hamad: “We think that the threats of the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, come as a constant policy for the Israeli government to continue their aggression against our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but I confer that there is an agreement. It is an agreement for a ceasefire. It was approved by all Palestinian factions and also by the government, and we still believe that this agreement is alive, and both sides should respect this agreement because it is interest for our people, and also we have approved as a Palestinian faction that we should work together, and when we want to react, we will react together.”