Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered his ministry on Sunday to urgently recruit supervisors to oversee the 10-month construction freeze in West Bank settlements, local daily Ha'aretz reported.
Within two weeks, 40 new supervisors will be trained to begin work in the region and dozens more will be recruited down the line to enforce the construction freeze approved Wednesday by Israeli security cabinet.
Currently, 14 construction supervisors work in the West Bank, said the report.
The Israel Police, the Border Police and the Civil Administration will all participate in the enforcement of the freeze together with the
supervisors, under the authority of the Israel Defense Forces, it added.
Shortly after Wednesday's security cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday evening announced a 10-month freeze on
construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in an effort to revive the peace talks with the Palestinians.
However, the freeze applies only to new homes, meaning that housing already underway will continue.
Netanyahu said that the construction freeze would not be implemented in predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, which is viewed by Israel as a separate issue to be discussed in a final status agreement with the Palestinians.
Settlement construction has been a sticking point in U.S. efforts to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which have been
suspended since Israeli army's Operation Cast Lead last winter in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Israel began building in the West Bank in 1967, following the capture of the territory from Jordan during the Six-Day War. Some 300,000 Israelis currently live in the West Bank, in addition to about 180,000 people living in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinians have refused to engage in peace talks until Israel freezes settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians deem is the capital of their future state.