News Brief07:44 AM

(IsraelNN.com) Ten families from the destroyed Gush Katif community of Shirat HaYam have moved to the community of Maskiot in the Jordan Valley, where there is a pre-army military academy. Last year, then-Defense Minister Amir Peretz announced the same day the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was visiting Israel that the government would build several new houses in Maskiot.

Secretary Rice responded that the proposed construction violates the American policy against building in Judea and Samaria, and Peretz backed down.

Defense Ministry officials explained that the Shirat HaYam families moved into buildings that were in the stage of completion. Similarly, three families recently moved into newly completed houses in the southern Hevron Hills community of Moshav Carmel, where the buildings were begun long before the announced government freeze on new construction.