Israel boosts WB settlers after quitting Gaza

Thousands of Israelis have streamed into larger West Bank settlements since the start of the year, increasing the number of Jews living on occupied land to 246,000, said the Interior Ministry official, who declined to be identified.

The official said that even after factoring in Israel's evacuation of 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank this week, the overall number now living in the occupied West Bank has grown by about 10,000 Jews.

"When you factor in the removal of settlers and take into account about 10,000 newcomers, mainly ultra-Orthodox Jews, you arrive at a figure of about 246,000 settlers. This is correct as of June 2005," the official said.

Under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pullout plan, Israel removed 9,000 settlers from all of the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, territories occupied 38 years ago where Palestinians want a state.

Sharon billed the pullout as "disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians but Palestinians fear the move is a ruse to cement Israeli control over much of the West Bank.

"Israel's insistence on expanding settlements represents a declaration of war against the Palestinians because it aims to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state by reinforcing and prolonging occupation," Palestinian cabinet minister Ghassan al-Khatib said.

Meanwhile, with the departure of their common Israeli enemy, inter-Palestinian divisions could flare up into fresh bloodshed, militants in the impoverished Gaza Strip warned.

"If the Palestinian Authority cannot meet the people's basic needs, there will be a new Intifada not against Israel but among ourselves," said Fathi Hamad, a local leader of radical movement Hamas in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

"There will be a huge popular uprising," he predicted. "Hamas is preparing for mass demonstrations."