Intel is halting the expansion of a major factory project in Israel, which was going to invest an extra $15 billion in a chip plant. The chip giant in December said it was going to expand an ongoing $10 billion plan at a site in Kiryat Gat site, in the south of the country, currently under construction but this appears to have been shelved now. Intel did not give any reason for the halt to construction. “Israel continues to be one of our key global manufacturing and R&D sites and we remain fully committed to the region,” the company said in a statement. It added that “managing large-scale proj…