JERUSALEM, Nov 30, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked ministry officials to recruit scores of inspectors to ensure a 10-month settlement freeze is upheld.

Last week, the Cabinet voted to support the freeze hoping to jump start peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

At the meeting, Attorney General Menachem Mazouz warned resources must be made available to enforce the cabinet decision, Maariv said.

Currently there are only 14 inspectors operating in the West Bank but ministry officials said within weeks that number will be boosted by an additional 40, the newspaper said.

Settlers in the West Bank said they intend to defy government orders to halt construction in their communities and plan to carry out an array of protest activities, including cornerstone laying celebrations for new housing units, the newspaper said.

Tzadok Zuhrai, the local council head of Elkana in the West Bank, Sunday refused to accept a restraining order forbidding further construction in his community delivered by an officer of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria, the paper said. In another incident, Gershon Masika, head of the Samaria regional council ripped up a similar order, Israel television network Channel 10 reported.

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