Palestinian officials accused Israel on Thursday of violating the roadmap by issuing some 22 housing tenders for housing units in the Gaza strip settlement of Neve Dekalim and warned that it was a dangerous step which could lead to renewed violence.

"This is a very dangerous step taken by the Israeli government," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior Arafat aide. The first stage of the road map initiative calls for a freeze on "all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements)."

"It seems that the Israelis have either misunderstood the message which President Bush tried to send to both sides or that they took his message as a green light to violate the road map", he added.

The first issuance of housing tenders in Gaza in over a year, follows what sources close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called his "most positive," trip to the Washington in which he promised to begin dismantling illegal outposts settlements in the West Bank.

" We are very disturbed to hear that israel issued 2 tenders for new housing in Neve Dekalim....the roadmap sates that israel must freeze all settlement activities including natural growth...so what roadmap is israel talking about when they say they are implementing the roadmap", former PA cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.

Palestinian sources fear the move could scuttle the tenuous agreements based on the road map for peace, possibly reigniting the intifada.

The statement comes on the heels of a developing rift between Palestinian Minister for Security Muhammed Dahlan and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz over the Palestinians demand for an immediate Israeli evacuation of Ramallah.

A security source told the Post Thursday that the chances of Mofaz agreeing to withdraw from Ramallah instead of Jericho and Qalkilya - the cities Israel offered to leave - are "virtually nonexistant."

The Israel Lands Authority responded that the tenders were released legally and "with all the necessary permits, and with the consent of Defense Minister Mofaz."

The publishing of the tendor sent somewhat stunned Israeli government officials scurrying for an answer. A government official did respond that what might be considered a slight Israeli aberration from the road map comes pails in comparison to the complete failure of the Palestinians to "fulfill even the first sentence of the road map which calls for the dismantlement of the terrorist infrastructure."

The source added that Jerusalem does not believe the incident will adversely affect Israeli relations with U.S.

Yet the PA is likely to exert pressure on the Americans, the initiators of the road map, to block the continuation of the project. "From here on out any talk of the hudna is a ridiculous joke... It is about time for the Americans to move and put more pressure on Israel to show that they mean business [vis- -vis the road map]," said Elias Zananiri, a Dahlan aide.

Zananiri expressed bewilderment that Israel could undertake such an initiative at such a sensitive moment in negotiations between the two conflicting sides. "This kind of decision," he added, "only fortifies the position of the radicals," he said in reference to the Palestinian terrorist groups.

Responding to the furor among the Palestinians and the Israeli left, Gaza Settlement spokesman Eran Sternberg shot back, "what do they want us to start having mass abortions?"

The settlement watchdog group, Peace Now, targeted not the settlers but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon which it charged "has no intention to withdraw from the territories but instead to dig the State of Israel deeper into the West Bank and Gaza."

According to Sternberg the tenders had first been issued five years ago, but there were no takers. The tender then sat in the Israel Lands Authority effectively dormant until Thursday morning when it was republished with the support of the Gaza Local Council and the town of Neve Dekalim.

Sternberg dismissed claims that the tender was politically motivated adding that the "housing crisis here is real especially considering an increased interest in Neve Dekalim and has caused overcrowding." Twelve local families hoping to move into more spacious accommodations have already snapped up an equal number lots.

"We refuse to live under the rules of any American White Paper," he added in reference to the British policy instituted the 1930´s which severely restricted the immigration of Jews into what was then Palestine. (© 1995-2003, The Jerusalem Post 07/31/03)