Israel to build homes in occupied area

JERUSALEM: Israel announced plans yesterday to build nearly 700 new homes for Jews in areas of the occupied West Bank it considers part of Jerusalem, a city it has excluded from a limited moratorium on settlement construction.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the plan, saying new building on territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war was illegal.

Israel has declared all of Jerusalem its indivisible and eternal capital, a claim not recognized internationally.