20 years after Disengagement, Samaria town re-established

Former residents and settlement activists return to Sa-Nur, one of four towns evacuated in 2005, forming new pioneer group to resettle the abandoned town.

By World Israel News Staff

Former residents of the Samaria town of Sa-Nur, which was evacuated by the Israeli government in 2005, have established a new pioneer group to resettle the abandoned community 20 years after their eviction.

In 2005, the Sharon government evacuated all 21 Israeli towns in the Gaza Strip as part of the Gaza Disengagement plan.

However, the plan also included the Israeli withdrawal from parts of northern Samaria, requiring the eviction of residents from four towns: Homesh, Ganim, Kadim, and Sa-Nur.

In recent years, settlement activists have attempted to resettle both Sa-Nur and Homesh, leading to multiple evacuations under the Disengagement Law that barred the entry of Israeli citizens to Gaza and parts of northern Samaria.

After the Knesset revoked the Disengagement Law in northern Samaria in 2023, the Israeli military nixed the order preventing Israelis from returning to the ruins of the four towns demolished in 2005.

This past May, the Israeli government approved plans to rebuild both Homesh and Sa-Nur, paving the way for their resettlement.

On Monday, Israel Hayom reported that the Samaria Regional Council recently established a pioneering group to resettle Sa-Nur. The group includes former residents expelled in 2005, along with newcomers.

The fledgling township held its founding meeting at the office of Samaria Regional Council chief Yossi Dagan, himself a former resident of Sa-Nur.

“We are beginning a historic step today, the first session lasting two and a half hours of the founding nucleus of the renewed Sa-Nur settlement,” Dagan said.

“This step is not only a correction for the expelled families or for this nucleus of families; it is a national correction.”

Dagan blamed the 2005 Gaza Disengagement for the Hamas invasion and subsequent massacres of October 7, 2023, and said the resettlement of northern Samaria would not only help secure Israel’s position in the area, but ultimately lead to the resettlement of Israeli blocs in Gaza.

“What enabled the Holocaust of October 7, which led us to horror and the continuing war, is directly the expulsion from Gush Katif and northern Samaria. The nucleus here is consolidating in the coming months to create settlement work, community work, together with all government ministries, and the State of Israel will rebuild northern Samaria and, with God’s help, also Gush Katif.”