The barrier being built by Israel around Jerusalem will be completed by the end of the year, Interior Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said Monday, after a court order to freeze construction on a 42-kilometer (25 mile) section.
"The security fence, whose purpose is to save lives, will be finished by the end of the year around Jerusalem," Hanegbi told public radio.
Israel's supreme court Sunday ordered the suspension of building work on a section of the barrier north-west of Jerusalem where two Palestinian protesters were killed last week.
The order, which will remain in force until next week, allows the court to examine appeals presented by residents of eight Palestinian villages in the West Bank against construction of the barrier on their land.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, who paid a visit to the site on Sunday, denounced the court's decision, saying that "any judicial delay will give a suicide bomber the chance to enter Israeli territory."
Hanegbi sought to play down the impact of the ruling.
"Israel is a state governed by the rule of law and the delay caused by the judicial authorities is minimal," he said.
"I hope that the supreme court rejects the appeals as soon as possible."
State President Moshe Katzav said that the verdict of the court should be respected.
"But on the other hand, we must also accelerate construction of the security fence which is the most effective method of protecting residents," he told the radio.
The Israeli government says the barrier is vital to put an end to the wave of suicide attacks which have been launched by Palestinian militant groups since the start of the intifada in September 2000.
The Palestinians say the route of the barrier, which often juts deep inside their territory, shows it is tantamount to a land grab.
Reserve general Uzi Dayan, who heads a group lobbying for rapid construction of the barrier as close as possible to the contours of the official Israel-West Bank border, said it was disingenuous for the likes of Mofaz to blame the court for delays as the government was responsible for its tortuous route.
"The government is responsible for the delays in the construction of the fence and not the supreme court whose decision concerns just one percent of the total length," he said.
Dayan said that the government must take responsibility for the fact that only 25 out of the 75 kilometer section around Jerusalem have been built so far.
The International Court of Justice held hearings in The Hague last week into the legality of the barrier.
It is not expected to issue a non-binding ruling for several months and the Israeli government has stuck by its pledge to complete the whole project by the end of next year.
Meanwhile, an Israeli court Monday ordered the freezing of millions of dollars seized by the army last week from Palestinian banks, at the request of relatives of an American-Israeli couple killed by Palestinian militants.
The families of Yaron and Efrat Ungar, Jewish settlers who were shot dead by Hamas in 1996 as they left a wedding in the Gaza Strip, filed the request at Tel Aviv district court in the wake of the seizure in raids in Ramallah last week of money which was allegedly used to finance "terrorist actions."
A US judge earlier this year ordered the radical Islamist group to pay more than 116 million dollars to relatives of the couple.
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz pledged in a statement that the confiscated sums would go towards "humanitarian actions" for the Palestinian people.
The ruling Monday effectively means that the government will not be able to distribute the funds for the moment.