Israel defies road-map and vows to build settlements

Just as Colin Powell met with other members of the Middle East Quartet on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea yesterday to try to rescue the road-map peace plan, two unexpected moves from Israel have put the plan, backed by President George Bush, in more trouble.

First, there was the killing by Israeli special forces of Abdullah Kawasmeh, a senior member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday night, which came soon after General Powell's talks with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, on Friday, and despite intense pressure from the US on Israel to rein in its policy of assassinations to give the road-map a chance.

Israel said Kawasmeh was not assassinated, but was shot resisting arrest. A Palestinian witness said he was unarmed. The killing earned Israel a rebuke from General Powell, the US Secretary of State.

Then there were Mr Sharon's reported remarks to his cabinet yesterday, in which he was quoted as saying Israel should continue building in the occupied territories but keep quiet about it, even though the plan requires Israel to stop settlement-building.

Mr Sharon was said to have made the remarks during a stormy cabinet session. Israel's national infrastructure minister, Yosef Paritzky, came under attack from his cabinet colleagues for suggesting the government could move Jewish people living in settlements that have to be evacuated to underpopulated areas of Israel.

President Bush has said the settlements have to be "dealt with". They are built on occupied land in contravention of international law, on the remaining 22 per cent of British-mandate Palestine where the Palestinians want to set up the independent state they are promised. They cut the West Bank into swathes, making a state difficult to set up.

Under the plan, Israel is to dismantle and evacuate settlements and halt construction.

But Mr Sharon reportedly said that people living in settlements to be evacuated could stay in the West Bank and move to older settlements which do not have to be evacuated. He reportedly said new homes could be built, which appears to contravene the call for a freeze on construction.

The Hamas militant Kawasmeh was killed by Israeli ground forces, rather than the helicopter rockets Israel has used in recent assassinations in the Gaza Strip which have killed many innocent people, including women and children. This time no others were hit.

The operation was carried out by Israeli police special forces disguised as Palestinians. They hid in a van, with its windows blocked by boxes of nappies, to ambush Kawasmeh as he left a mosque in Hebron after evening prayers. Israel said the commandoes had not intended to shoot Kawasmeh but fired after he drew a gun. A Palestinian witness, Mohammed Nasser al-Din, said Kawasmeh was unarmed.

The response from Hamas was predictable: there would be an "immediate reaction", and Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, the most prominent leader of Hamas' political wing, said: "There will be a retaliation".

After Israel's attempt to kill Dr Rantisi two weeks ago, Hamas carried out a suicide bombing in central Jerusalem that killed 17 people. An Israeli newspaper poll found that 40 per cent of Israelis believed Mr Sharon had ordered the assassination to delay the road-map, and that 67 per cent wanted the killings to stop to give the road-map a chance.