Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged settlers in the West Bank to exhibit restraint and respect the rule of law in Israel in the wake of a deadly shooting attack near Hebron that left four Israeli civilians dead.
Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington on Tuesday just hours after the attack, spoke with Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday to get updates regarding the investigation into the deadly shooting.
Israeli settlers in the West Bank said earlier on Wednesday that they would break a government freeze on construction in their communities to protest the Palestinian shooting attack on the eve of new peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Netanyahu met on Wednesday with Quartet envoy Tony Blair after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, when they discussed the future of Israel's settlement freeze in the West Bank.
Sources from Netanyahu's delegation said the prime minister told Clinton that the Israeli cabinet's stance with regard to the construction moratorium has not changed, and that the 10-month building freeze will expire in September as planned.
Netanyahu reiterated his position that the subject of Israeli settlements must be negotiated within the framework of direct talks and cannot be separated from other core issues to be resolved in a final-status agreement.
Netanyahu and Obama are meeting at 10:45 a.m. (E.S.T.) to discuss the settlement issue, among other topics, ahead of Thursday's start of direct talks.