Israel"s decision to expand the settlement at Gilo in East Jerusalem is an impasse to the Middle East peace process that must be overcome, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Tuesday. Israel decided last week to add 900 housing units to the Gilo settlement on the outskirts of East Jerusalem the decision met with protests from the U.N. as well as U.S. President Barack Obama. In the past month, Israel has demolished 17 houses and displaced 99 Palestinians, half of them children said U.N. Undersecretary General for Political Affairs, Haile Menkerios. Menkerios said the Israeli government has switched to restraining expansion of the settlements while it is under pressure to freeze them to allow progress in the roadmap to peace with the Palestinians. He said in a monthly report to the 15-member council that tensions between Israel and the Palestinians continued in the past month with fresh security incidents.
