(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-01 14:20

JERUSALEM - Israel is going to build 1,400 new apartments in the West Bank and the disputed part of Jerusalem, officials announced, despite objections by Palestinians and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In violence Tuesday, Israeli troops shot and killed two Hamas gunmen during a raid on the central Gaza Strip, Hamas said. The army confirmed troops operating against rocket launching squads in the area shot toward two gunman who approached them.

Israel's construction announcements Monday came just after Rice left for Amman to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In the Jordanian capital, Rice said Israel should stop such construction projects, but to no avail.

The move reflects the political weakness of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - who continues to support construction in disputed areas because it allows him to keep his fragile coalition intact - and further damages Abbas' standing.

Olmert insisted Israel is not building new settlements, nor is it confiscating additional land for existing ones. Instead, he said, Israel is building only in places it intends to keep even after a peace treaty is signed.

Palestinians charge that the ongoing construction is sabotaging peace efforts. Though they tacitly agree that Israel will, in the end, retain some or all of these areas, the bulldozers, cranes and work crews are tangible evidence to Palestinians that peace negotiations are not helping their cause, further complicating Abbas' position.

Political realities are also driving Olmert. His own popularity battered by his inconclusive 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, he depends on Shas, a hawkish ultra-Orthodox party, for his coalition government's parliamentary majority.

An announcement of 600 new housing units to go up in Jerusalem came from the Jerusalem city hall, but the larger project - 800 new apartments in Beitar, an ultra-Orthodox settlement outside Jerusalem, came from Shas. Olmert is not in a position to deny it: Shas leaders have made repeated threats to bring down his government if Olmert crosses them.

Rice arrived in the region on Saturday for three days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials meant to advance the US goal of achieving a peace agreement before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January, 2009. A senior US official said the US would like to push for an outline of an interim peace agreement by the time Bush visits the region in May.

At a news conference with Abbas in Jordan, Rice said it was her impression both sides were serious about advancing the talks.

"I think it's all moving in the right direction," she said.

But she also warned Israel to halt new settlement activities that could upset progress.

"Settlement activity should stop - expansion should stop," Rice said.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the construction plans and appealed to the Americans to intervene.

"This announcement is changing the situation on the ground for the worse," Erekat said.

US Embassy spokesman Stewart Tuttle declined to comment on the developments.