Israeli Hardliners Plan Settlements on West Bank

Israeli hardliners plan to build a series of new settlements across the West Bank in retaliation for the terrorist attack that killed eight students at a Jewish religious college.

Their warning yesterday came as the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, approved the expansion of a settlement near Jerusalem, which will see the construction of 750 new homes.

Israel has yet to respond militarily to the shooting at the Jerusalem college last Thursday. But further expansion of the Jewish presence in the West Bank will be seen as a defiant move intended to punish the Palestinians.

A spokesman for the Yesha council, Yishai Hollander, the leading settler group, said their plan was a formal response to Thursday's attack.

"It was very painful. They attacked at our heart so there is a lot of anger and a lot of sadness," he said.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the new settlement expansion showed that "Israel wants to demolish the peace process."

As the college reopened yesterday it emerged that a British citizen is among the teenagers injured in the shooting who are now recovering in hospital.

Nadav Samuels, 14, was shot several times in the legs and has undergone two operations. But he is expected to make a good recovery.

Nadav's mother, Helen, was born and raised in London and moved to Israel in 1983, where she married her husband Noah Samuels, a Canadian.

Speaking from hospital where he was at his son's bedside, Mr. Samuels said: "He's okay, he's going to be okay. But he's going to be here for a while." Mr. Samuels added that Nadav had so far been able to say little about the attack.