Israeli settlers are to end a construction freeze in the West Bank in response to a deadly attack, a settler leader said Wednesday, DPA reported.
Zviki Bar-Hai told Israel Radio that settlement building would restart "wherever there is a need" once the four victims of Tuesday night's attack are buried.
A partial, 10-month moratorium on Israeli construction in the West Bank, declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last November, is due to end on September 26.
The premier has not said whether he will extend it, despite Palestinian demands that he do so in order to save the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The Islamist Hamas movement, which opposes peace negotiations with Israel, claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred on the eve of the relaunch of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The victims of the attack - a couple and two hitchhikers - were driving by the Kiryat Arba settlement outside the city of Hebron in the West Bank when they came under fire. The attack shattered months of relative calm in the West Bank.