TEL AVIV — Israel has employed light aircraft to conduct reconnaissance over Jewish communities in the West Bank.   

---

---

On Nov. 27, several air force planes flew over the West Bank in what the sources said marked an effort to produce an updated map of Jewish communities and areas where construction was continuing. The sources said the map would enable inspectors from the military's Civil Administration to rapidly locate and demolish structures deemed illegal.

The sources said this was the first time the air force has been used against Israeli citizens since the expulsion of 16,000 Jews from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in 2005. At the time, the air force flew reconnaissance missions over Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip to facilitate a rapid evacuation of the residents.

The maps produced from the latest air force missions were expected to be relayed to the United States, which has demanded a complete freeze in Jewish construction in the West Bank and areas of Jerusalem captured in the 1967 war. In 2004, the air force flew missions to produce maps for the State Department that delineated Jewish communities in the West Bank.

---