JERUSALEM, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel said on Thursday that it will continue home demolition of the assailants and build new homes for settlers, following a deadly Palestinian attack in the West Bank.
The measures came in the wake of a drive-by shooting attack outside the outpost Givat Asaf, northeast of Ramallah, which left two soldiers earlier in the day, and a similar attack on Sunday outside the nearby settlement of Ofra, which left seven Israeli civilians wounded.
A total of 82 new housing units will be constructed in the West Bank settlement of Ofra and two new industrial compounds near the settlement of Avnei Hefetz in the northern West Bank and Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem, according to a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
"Thousands of homes" built in the settlements without permits from Israeli authorities would also be retroactively legalized, the statement said.
"They (the Palestinians) think of uprooting us from our country. They will not succeed," Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, working permits allowing Palestinians to enter Israel and the settlements for work would be revoked for families of the assailants and other people who helped them, the statement added.
Expanding the settlements in the West Bank is considered illegal by most of the international community because the settlements are built on the lands seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.
