Israel on Saturday evening denied Palestinian claims that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed not to issue "new building plans" at West Bank settlements, as part of efforts to calm tensions and end a wave of Palestinian terror attacks.
According to Palestinian sources quoted by the Ynet news site, US Secretary of State John Kerry relayed this pledge from Netanyahu to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when they met in Amman on Saturday.
At a press conference two weeks ago, called to assure Israelis that the government was capable of thwarting the ongoing wave of Palestinian terrorism, Netanyahu said it was "common sense" for him not to risk alienating parts of the international community by announcing new settlement building in response to the terror surge, as many of his right-wing coalition colleagues have demanded.