Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel would not restrict the construction of Jewish settlements in disputed areas in Jerusalem.
"Our policy on Jerusalem is the same policy followed by all Israeli governments for the 42 years, and it has not changed. From our viewpoint, building in Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv," Netanyahu said.
The housing dispute has caused an upsurge of violence in the Middle East. Earlier on Friday, an Israeli aircraft bombed six targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a Palestinian rocket attack which killed a Thai agricultural worker in southern Israel on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said on Sunday that troops in the West Bank had shot dead two Palestinians after they attempted to stab Israeli soldiers.
Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, has been the main obstacle to reviving peace talks.
Under the internationally agreed roadmap for Middle East peace, Israel is obliged to freeze all settlement construction activity and remove unauthorized outposts built since 2001 from Palestinian territories.
The Middle East Quartet of international mediators comprising the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia on Friday called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity in East Jerusalem, saying it will "use all powers" to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
TEL AVIV, March 21 (RIA Novosti)
