The Israeli Interior Ministry released figures on Tuesday showing that the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip had increased by 16 percent in the last three years, to 236,381 -- about double the number that existed when Israel signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The figures were released on a day of violence in Gaza, when an Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car carrying senior members of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, according to the Israeli military.
Israel was also planning over the next three years to double the number of Jewish settlers living in the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War, a cabinet minister said yesterday.
A military spokesman declined to comment on any casualties in the night attack in Gaza City, but news agencies reported that one of the men had been wounded and as many as 10 bystanders had been injured.
Separately, Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint outside the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis killed a Palestinian man who was suspected of planting a bomb.
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has vowed to dismantle unauthorized settlements in accordance with the current Washington-backed Middle East peace plan, but he has been slow to fulfill the promise. On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers posted eviction orders at four unauthorized outposts in the West Bank, but only one was inhabited.
Critics say that the moves are cosmetic and that Sharon, a longtime advocate of the settlements, is not serious about stopping the spread of Jewish settlements.
Members of the opposition Labor Party have submitted a no-confidence motion against Sharon's government, saying his administration has encouraged the growth of the settlements by giving settlers tax breaks and other preferential financial treatment.
Leaders of the roughly 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip say the presence of the settlers is an obstacle to their goal of creating a contiguous state.
Among the fastest-growing settlements in the last three years were those surrounded by Palestinian areas in Gaza that have borne some of the most persistent and heaviest attacks since the uprising began in September, 2000.
The population of Kfar Darom, a Jewish enclave in the middle of the Gaza Strip, grew by 52 percent, and nearby Netzarim by 24 percent, according to the figures.
In Neve Dekalim, a heavily barricaded settlement just down the road from the Gaza checkpoint where soldiers killed the 22-year-old Palestinian on Tuesday, settlers say the number of families has grown to 520 from 480 in the last three years.
"The way the Israeli government sees it is there will be no additional building outside the authorized municipal parameters of the existing settlements, but inside the settlements one cannot stop life going on," said Zalman Shoval, the foreign affairs adviser to Sharon and a former Israeli ambassador to the US.
Reports by Israel's largest daily and Israel radio meanwhile said the right-wing government agreed on a plan to solidify its hold over the Golan Heights before opening any peace negotiations with Syria.
About 17,000 Jewish settlers now live in the Golan, a plateau with important aquifers and strategic value because it overlooks northeastern Israel, including the Sea of Galilee.
"The government decision is a response to the initiative of Syria, which said it is interested in peace while openly supporting Palestinian terror," Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz told the Yedioth Ahronoth.
Israel Radio said the settlement plan would involve building around 900 homes and other investments worth more than 300 million shekels (US$68 million).
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