كريات أربع
One day after the 2002 Hebron ambush, "Zvi Katzover", the head of Kiryat Arba, called on the government to "clean up the area" between Kiryat Arba and the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to destroy the hundreds of Palestinian homes along this short stretch of road. The next day, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the opportunity that now presents itself in the wake of the attack ... must be exploited to establish new facts on the ground. He said that "″a window of opportunity existed in the coming 48 hours to establish a "compact" zone of Jewish territorial contiguity between Kiryat Arba and the Jewish enclave in the heart of Hebron, including the Tomb of the Patriarchs″". Already in 1996, Sharon had presented a plan for a Jewish zone from Kiryat Arba to Tel Rumeida and Beit Hadassah, including the ancient Karaite and Sephardi cemeteries. Housing and Construction Minister Natan Sharansky supported the plan to link the settlements and build settlement contiguity.