JERUSALEM, February 11, 2013 (WAFA) – Peace Now, the Israeli anti-settlements movement, said the Israeli Defense Ministry plans to build 90 new housing units in the illegal West Bank settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, media reports said Monday.

The French news agency, AFP, quoted Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch program, as saying that construction of the housing units will begin within days.

The decision to build the new units was part of a deal between the ministry and settlers that led to the evacuation of nearby Ulpana settlement outpost after an Israeli court had ordered return of the land the outpost was built on to its Palestinian owners.

T.R./M.S.