Israeli authorities on December 2 authorized construction of another 625 homes for Jewish residents in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, local news site Ynet reported. An interior ministry planning committee approved construction of the homes in Pisgat Zeev, on the city’s northeastern edge, after a two-year delay during which committee- ordered amendments were incorporated into the plan, Ynet said. The ministry spokeswoman could not be reached for confirmation. If confirmed, the plan is sure to stoke more Palestinian anger. In a message to the United Nations, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned that Israel’s settlement of occupied territories had become “a time bomb” that could destroy peace hopes at any moment. On the same day, the Jerusalem city council approved 130 new Jewish homes in Gilo, also in east Jerusalem, drawing an immediate protest from Palestinian officials. Israeli refusal to extend a 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, which ended in late September, led to the breakdown of direct peace talks with the Palestinians that had only resumed three weeks earlier. Abbas has said he will not return to talks without a new freeze that includes east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for the capital of their promised state. Abbas said on December 2 he was expecting to formally hear the outcome of US efforts to secure a new freeze within a day. “We still haven’t received an official US response, but we may get one officially,” Abbas told reporters as he inaugurated a new building at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah