The US State Department said it was "deeply concerned" over an Israeli decision to approve 400 new homes in the West Bank Sunday, in response to a terror attack inItamar in which five members of the Fogel family were slaughtered.
"They murder and we build," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told 12-year old Tamar Fogel, who lost her parents and three siblings in the attack.
In a statement released late Sunday spokesman Mark Toner said the US sees settlement building as "illegitimate" and that it "runs counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations'' between Israel and the Palestinians.
On Saturday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton published a statement condemning the attack. "I was shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of an Israeli family early Saturday morning in the West Bank. The United States condemns this appalling attack in the strongest possible terms," she said.