Despite President Trump’s rejection of changes to the legal status of Judea and Samaria, nearly two dozen Republican members of Congress met with a settlement leader in show of support for annexation.

By World Israel News Staff

A group of Republican senators and members of the House of Representatives hosted Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan in Washington this week for an event backing Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria and opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the region.

The reception, held at the Capitol Hill Club, was hosted by Sens. Lindsey Graham and James Lankford and attended by Republican Reps. Marlin Stutzman, Josh Brecheen and Robert Aderholt, according to Israel National News.

The event was co-organized with Tony Perkins, a prominent conservative activist and president of the Family Research Council.

About 20 US lawmakers took part in the gathering, which focused on support for Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, and opposition to growing international pressure against Israel.

Dagan told the lawmakers that the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack had changed the debate over Israeli control of Judea and Samaria, arguing that a Palestinian state there would pose an intolerable security risk to Israel.

“There is no room for illusions,” Dagan said.

Dagan said the hilltops of Judea and Samaria overlook Israel’s main population centers, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and argued that Israeli sovereignty over Jewish communities in the territory was the alternative to a Palestinian state.

“Our fight is a shared one,” he said.

Republican lawmakers who took part in the meeting expressed support for Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, despite President Donald Trump’s rejection last year of annexation.

Lankford, who co-hosted the event, said Jewish families in Judea and Samaria had deep historical ties to the area and should be able to live there without fear.

“It shouldn’t be difficult to talk about sovereignty,” Lankford said.

Stutzman said the two-state framework had failed and that Israel should be “unified under a single sovereignty,” according to the report.

Brecheen also voiced support for Israeli sovereignty, saying the October 7 attack showed that Israel could not accept a hostile entity next to its communities.

Dagan also presented what he called a “Connection Plan” for northern Samaria, including the establishment or restoration of 18 communities.

The plan includes renewed settlement in Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim, four northern Samaria communities evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 disengagement, along with 14 additional communities in the area.

Dagan, who was removed from Sa-Nur during the disengagement, has long argued that the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and parts of northern Samaria strengthened terrorism rather than advancing peace.

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Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan made an emotional return to his former settlement of Sa-Nur, where he and his family affixed a mezuzah to the doorpost of their new home.

*סגירת מעגל מרגשת: יוסי דגן קבע מזוזה בביתו בשא-נור*

*21 שנים לאחר שגורשו מביתם, קבעו ראש מועצת שומרון יוסי דגן ורעייתו אוריה את המזוזה בקראוון אליו חזרו בישוב, במעמד מרגש, בהשתתפות שר הביטחון ישראל כ"ץ ושר השיכון חיים כץ. pic.twitter.com/uqWwZ0S0FR

— מה חדש. What's new (@Gloz111) April 24, 2026

The post WATCH: Samaria regional council head returns to his former home in moving rededication ceremony appeared first on World Israel News.

Rehavam is named for assassinated right-wing minister Rehavam Ze’evi.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A new settlement was inaugurated Sunday in Samaria as part of an announced plan to almost double the region’s Jewish population to one million residents.

The first 10 families were welcomed in a ceremony to their new trailer homes in Rehavam, located at a strategic point along the Trans-Samaria Highway, amid a chain of settlements viewed by local leaders as strengthening security along the vital route.

“We are privileged to make the dream of returning to Zion come true… amidst all the difficulties of the war,” said Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Council.

“We are working according to an organized plan – a million in Samaria,” he added citing efforts to identify land, establish communities and farms, and steadily expand Jewish presence in the area.

Dagan first presented the initiative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in August 2023, less than two months before the Hamas-led Oct. 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

His plan envisions the establishment of at least 25 cities in Samaria by 2050, compared to just one today – Ariel – along with the application of full Israeli sovereignty in the region.

Rehavam is one of 22 settlements throughout Judea and Samaria that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, led the Cabinet to authorize last May.

Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, overseeing Jewish settlements, land management and planning, sent his congratulations on Rehavam’s establishment.

“We are working hard so that the many decisions on the establishment and regulation of the new settlements will not remain on paper but will take shape and become a reality,” he said. “Great efforts and large budgets are being invested in this.”

“We will continue to consolidate our hold throughout the homeland in Judea and Samaria and fortify Israel’s security belt,” the minister added, reflecting the nationalist view that Jewish settlement in Israel’s historic heartland prevents Palestinian terror attacks in the country’s densely populated center.

“We are happy to settle here and turn on the light,” new resident Evyatar Hollander told Channel 14. “There is something amazing in the bond between the land of Israel and the Jews who come and settle and enjoy it.”

The new community is named for the late Rehavam Ze’evi, an IDF general who founded the right-wing Moledet party and was the tourism minister in October 2001 when he was assassinated by Palestinian terrorists.

Calling it a “privilege” to establish a settlement in the minister’s memory, Dagan noted that as head of the IDF Central Command following the Six-Day War, Ze’evi “was the first to prepare a master plan for settlement in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.”

“The settlements that we are establishing now are also based on the plan that Rehavam Ze’evi wrote,” he said.

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The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories is a unit of the Defense Ministry that oversees civilian and humanitarian affairs and liaises with Palestinians.

By JNS

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan publicly called on Sunday for Israel’s Defense Ministry to rename its Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit to the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea and Samaria.

“The fact that the Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces cling to the term ‘territories’ is a moral and historical injustice,” Dagan wrote in a missive to Defense Minister Israel Katz, the Arutz 7 outlet reported.

Dagan contacted Katz with the same demand six months ago, but “half a year has passed and there is no response,” he added.

The regional leader accused the ministry of “adopting the anti-Israel narrative, instead of leading with a firm nationalist and Zionist line.”

In his first letter to Katz, Dagan noted that back in 1968, the Government Naming Committee, which approves official names for places and sites, determined that the region would be known by its historical name.

Dagan also pointed to legislative initiatives across the United States, promoted by the Samaria Regional Council, that call for the official government use of “Judea and Samaria.”

“While in the United States official legislation is advancing in Congress and in 20 state legislatures requiring the use of the name ‘Judea and Samaria’ instead of ‘the West Bank,’ here at home, in the heart of the country, the security establishment is dragging its feet,” he stated.

“The defense minister is expected to put an end to this saga,” Dagan added. “Judea and Samaria are not ‘territories’—they are our home.”

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories is a unit of the Defense Ministry established after Israel liberated Judea, Samaria and Gaza during the Six-Day War in 1967.

It oversees civilian and humanitarian affairs and liaises with Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led an unprecedented drive to expand control of Judea and Samaria, approving some 50,000 homes and over 50 new Jewish communities since December 2022.

Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Jerusalem to extend its full legal sovereignty over the region, according to a poll from January 2025.

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“When we bring settlement and the military back here with full force, that is how terror is suppressed and security is restored.”

By World Israel News Staff

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday welcomed what he described as a major step toward strengthening Israel’s presence and security in Judea and Samaria, as military and government officials advanced parallel legal and security measures across the region.

The developments followed the signing of eight new orders by Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of Israel’s Central Command, formally defining or expanding municipal jurisdictions for eight Jewish communities.

The initiative, promoted by the Settlement Administration and the Civil Administration, is intended to close long-standing planning gaps while establishing permanent boundaries aimed at preventing future territorial contiguity that could enable a Palestinian state.

The orders cover six newer communities across five regional councils, along with expanded jurisdiction in the Binyamin Regional Council.

In northern Samaria, jurisdiction for Homesh was formally reestablished nearly 20 years after it was dismantled during the 2005 disengagement. Jurisdiction was also defined for Mount Ebal.

Additional communities include Yonadav in the southern Hebron Hills, Gvaot in Gush Etzion, Kedem Arava in the Megillot region, and Yitav West in the Jordan Valley.

Within Binyamin, Bnei Adam received final regulatory recognition, while Ofra saw a significant expansion of its boundaries.

Smotrich said the move advances what he called de facto sovereignty and pointed to Homesh as a symbol of Jewish resilience and national spirit. The legal step enables authorities to advance zoning plans, issue building permits, and develop infrastructure immediately and lawfully.

Alongside the jurisdictional orders, officials announced a parallel security move in northern Samaria.

The Menashe Brigade, removed from the area during the 2005 disengagement, is set to return, alongside the construction of a new company-level military base in the evacuated community of Sa-Nur.

During a site visit on Monday, Smotrich highlighted the link between settlement and security.

“We budgeted the return of the brigade headquarters here, along with two battalion headquarters, with an allocation of 800 million shekels over the next three years,” he said, adding that the new base would enable families to return to the area.

“When the IDF left this area, it became the terror capital of Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich said. “When we bring settlement and the military back here with full force, that is how terror is suppressed and security is restored to the State of Israel.”

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan echoed the assessment, saying, “Most of the terror attacks came from here because there was no army presence.” He added that restoring settlement and military bases would strengthen security nationwide and reduce the burden on the IDF.

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Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan traveled to the U.S. capital for three days of marathon meetings aimed at promoting Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, his office announced.

By JNS

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), speaker of the House of Representatives, told visiting Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan in Washington this week that “Judea and Samaria are the Land of Israel,” Dagan’s office stated on Thursday.

“I visited Samaria—both as a member of Congress before becoming speaker, and again last summer as speaker with a small group of colleagues,” Johnson told Dagan, according to a Hebrew readout the Samaria Regional Council provided to JNS on Thursday.

“The Bible is clear: Judea and Samaria are the Land of Israel. I do not understand why we debate this anew every single day,” Johnson said, adding, “The people of Israel know who stands with them in this moment of crisis. They recognize it, and they value it.”

During their meeting, Dagan presented Johnson with copper artwork depicting biblical sites in northern Samaria, including Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus (Shechem), Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and ancient pillars of Samaria (Sebastia), the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.

“We are fighting together for justice. Judea and Samaria are justice, and they are security. No nation on earth has a connection to its homeland as deep as the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel—especially to Judea and Samaria, the land of the Bible,” Dagan told the speaker.

“Two thousand years ago, the prophets Jeremiah, Amos and Ezekiel foretold that the people of Israel would return to their land, rebuild the hills of Samaria, plant vineyards and produce wine,” Dagan continued.

“That is exactly what we are doing today,” he said. “There is no greater justice than fulfilling the words of the prophets in the Land of Israel, particularly in the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria.

“Before, and certainly after Oct. 7, it is clear to all of us that this is not only a matter of justice, but also the protective shield of the State of Israel,” Dagan said, in reference to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks targeting villages on the southern border.

“Therefore, it is also what brings security to the Western world and to the United States,” he said.

Dagan traveled to the U.S. capital for three days of marathon meetings aimed at promoting Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, his office announced. He met with lawmakers, top Trump administration officials and leading evangelical figures.

On Wednesday, Dagan spoke at a “historic” hearing of the Middle East Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The hearing, titled, “Understanding Judea and Samaria: Historical, Strategic and Political Dynamics in U.S.–Israel Relations,” marked the first use of the region’s “accurate and historic name,” according to Dagan’s statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led an unprecedented drive to expand control of Judea and Samaria, approving some 50,000 housing units and more than 50 new Jewish communities since late 2022.

As of Jan. 1, 529,704 Jews lived in Judea and Samaria, amounting to approximately 5.28% of the Jewish state’s population.

Nearly 70% of Israelis want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty over the disputed territory, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.

On Aug. 4, Johnson declared that Judea and Samaria belong to the Jewish people “by right,” as he became the highest-ranking American official to cross the Jewish state’s pre-1967 lines with Samaria.

According to the Israel Hayom daily, Johnson visited the Samaria city of Ariel with the express consent of U.S. President Donald Trump and the State Department.

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Dagan: “Only full sovereignty over all open areas and settlements will prevent a terrorist state from being established in the heart of the country.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan is urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward with applying Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, despite US President Donald Trump’s firm declaration that he will not permit annexation.

Trump, speaking to reporters Thursday, said clearly, “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. No, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.” He added that the matter had been discussed with Netanyahu, but repeated, “I’m not going to allow it, whether I spoke to him or not. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”

Dagan responded Friday by calling on Netanyahu to assert Israel’s independence in decision-making.

“The bond between Netanyahu, Darmer, and Trump has never been stronger—also yesterday with Kushner and Witkoff. The ball is always in Netanyahu’s court,” he said. “He must tell Trump: ‘We will not tolerate another October 7—I am applying sovereignty.’”

He argued that while a friendly US administration is important, it cannot replace Israel’s responsibility to act in its own security interests.

“A supportive US administration does not decide sovereignty or build for us; it is an administration with which agreements can be made and disagreements dealt with,” Dagan noted.

The Samaria leader warned that the Israeli public will not accept hesitation in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack.

“Only full sovereignty over all open areas and settlements will prevent a terrorist state from being established in the heart of the country,” he said.

Other voices in the political sphere echoed Dagan’s stance. MK Avi Maoz of the Noam party insisted that “with all due respect” to Washington, “the decision to apply sovereignty lies with the Israeli government and Knesset.”

Dagan concluded by urging Netanyahu to use his upcoming international appearances to make Israel’s position clear.

“The responsibility lies with Netanyahu. He is the prime minister, the one we elected—and he must declare at the UN: ‘This is our land. I am applying full sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.’ Most of the people expect this, and most of the people will not accept anything less.”

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U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee was given honorary citizenship in Samaria and presented with a framed certificate by Samaria Council head Yossi Dagan.

השגריר מייק האקבי – ‘אזרח הכבוד’ של השומרון: “אנחנו פה כדי להשאר”.

יוסי דגן, חברו הקרוב של האקבי, העניק לו תעודת “אזרחות כבוד” של השומרון. pic.twitter.com/jBsoQ6MvGz

— מה חדש. What’s new (@Gloz111) September 17, 2025

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Two decades after the Disengagement, history was made in Samaria as the first kindergarten reopened in Chomesh, with council head Yossi Dagan declaring through tears, “The Disengagement is dead – the People of Israel live!”

היסטוריה: גן בחומש – הראשון מאז ההתנתקות.

היסטוריה בשומרון: 20 שנה לאחר הגירוש, פתחה מועצת שומרון גן הילדים בחומש – הגן הראשון שחוזר לישובים שנעקרו ב'התנתקות'. יוסי דגן ראש מועצת שומרון בירך 'שהחיינו' בדמעות: "ההתנתקות מתה – עם ישראל חי! pic.twitter.com/Wqg11VXpIv

— מה חדש. What's new (@Gloz111) September 1, 2025

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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.”

The post 20 years after Disengagement, Samaria town re-established appeared first on World Israel News.

Coalition leaders call for permanent Jewish return to Shechem site, 25 years after IDF withdrawal. Military plan to be presented Thursday.

By David Brummer, World Israel News

In a move described as both historic and unprecedented, 62 Israeli government ministers and Knesset members—including most of the Security Cabinet—have signed a formal appeal demanding the immediate return of a permanent Jewish presence to Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem.

The joint statement comes exactly 25 years after Israel’s withdrawal from the site, known in Hebrew as Kever Yosef, following the outbreak of the Second Intifada in October 2000, according to Israel National News.

The signatories include high-profile ministers such as Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Culture Minister Miri Regev, and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin.

They assert that Israel has a moral and historical duty to restore access and sovereignty over the compound.

“Joseph’s Tomb is one of the most significant historical and spiritual sites for the Jewish people,” the statement read. “Its abandonment led to an escalation in terrorism and ultimately sparked the Second Intifada. This mistake must be corrected.”

Citing the Oslo Accords, the ministers and MKs emphasized that the agreement promised continued Jewish access to the site and even committed to restoring the yeshiva that had operated there.

“Leaving the site to terrorist control was a historic stain. It’s time for Israel to take responsibility,” the statement said.

The announcement coincides with a scheduled meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s subcommittee on Judea and Samaria.

At that meeting, IDF Central Command is expected to present a concrete plan to reinstate a Jewish presence at the tomb.

If approved, the plan will advance for political implementation.

The push for renewed presence has gained momentum over the past six months. It is led by Rabbi David Ben Natan, whose son, Shoval, was killed in recent fighting.

Shomron Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and MK Zvi Sukkot have also been at the forefront of the campaign.

Dozens of mayors, council heads, and grassroots activists have joined the initiative.

Dagan praised the unified political support, saying, “The people demand a historical correction. After 25 years of abandonment, we are closer than ever to restoring sovereignty at Joseph’s Tomb. This is a moment of truth — the Israeli government must fulfill its promise and implement the plan now. It’s not just our right — it’s a national obligation.”

Sukkot, a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, echoed that sentiment.

“Tomorrow, the IDF will present the practical plan. I pledge to do everything in my power to secure political approval. The full support of the Cabinet and coalition ministers is not only meaningful—it is historic.”

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Eight US states push legislation to mandate the use of the historical name “Judea and Samaria” in place of the “West Bank.” Settlement leader touts move as “historical justice.”

By World Israel News Staff

Eight American states are moving forward with bills mandating state agencies refer to territory occupied by Jordan from 1948 through 1967 by its historic and biblical name, highlighting Jewish ties to the area.

According to a report by Yedioth Ahronoth, state legislatures in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah are poised to pass legislation requiring that all official state documents referencing the territory west of the Jordan River but east of the 1949 Armistice Line (the Green Line) be referred to as Judea and Samaria, rather than as the “West Bank.”

Captured by the Arab Legion in 1948 and occupied until 1967 by Jordan, the territory roughly matches the borders of the regions known in the Bible as Judea—representing much of what was once the holdings of the Tribe of Judah—and Samaria, the heartland of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, which split from the southern Jewish kingdom and established its capital in the city of Samaria.

In 1950, however, the Kingdom of Jordan annexed the territory captured in the 1948-49 war, renaming it the “West Bank.”

The terminology of the territory has become politically charged, with Israel retaining the historical name, Judea and Samaria, while most countries have over the years adopted the term “West Bank.”

Supporters of Israel’s settlement enterprise have pushed for a return to the historical terminology, which highlights Jewish ties to the area.

Use of “Judea and Samaria” has gained support on the American Right, with activists at the American Conservative Union’s annual gathering, CPAC, voting in February to endorse a motion endorsing Israeli sovereignty over the area, referring to the “biblical heartland” as “Judea and Samaria.”

Later that month, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee instructed Republican staffers working with the committee to use the term “Judea and Samaria” in place of the term “West Bank.”

House and Senate Republicans, in recent years, have pushed legislative measures to formally replace the term “West Bank” with “Judea and Samaria” in all federal documents.

Yossi Dagan, chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, hailed the decision by legislators from eight US states to refer to the area as Judea and Samaria as a “revolution.”

“This is nothing less than a revolution. Our goal is to advance this law because it is historical justice. Our mission is to continue this and bring sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,” Dagan said.

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“A child’s life in Samaria is no less valuable” than those in other areas of the country, said Yossi Dagan.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The safety of Israeli citizens in Samaria is being abandoned by the state, its council head charged Tuesday after a missile fragment the size of a bus fell in a central location in the region, with just chance dictating its landing in an open area.

“The fact that protection has not been provided to the central settlements borders on irresponsibility,” said Yossi Dagan. “Immediate budget allocation for fortification in the Samaria settlements should be made, similar to the model recently implemented for residents along other frontline areas in Israel, which are eligible for NIS132,000 per family for protection, based on proximity to the frontline.”

More than a hundred pieces of either Iranian missiles or Israeli interceptors have landed across Samaria in the week since Operation Rising Lion was launched to end the nuclear and ballistic missile threat emanating from the Islamic Republic.

“Every night, parts of interceptors fall on houses, yards, and vehicles,” Dagan said.

In one case, a fragment from an interceptor hit a synagogue.

Few were so massive in size as the one that fell in the unnamed village, but the danger is real and immediate, because “Judea and Samaria is the shield from the east and has become the ‘interception line’ of the State of Israel,” Dagan said.

There are tens of thousands of residents living in young settlements with no bomb shelters and whole neighborhoods consisting of paper-thin caravans or old buildings that do not contain safe rooms.

This serious problem is actually country-wide.

In a just-published report, State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman slammed the government over the issue, stating that a whopping 2.6 million Israelis lacked proper protected spaces.

Not only are these citizens still without safe rooms or bomb shelters, there are also issues of “malfunctioning public shelters, a lack of mapping for the population without access to protected spaces, and insufficient preparedness to support civilians once they are harmed,” he wrote.

Moreover, having blared the warning already five years ago, “budgets allocated to the issue were not utilized, and government plans were left unfunded,” he said.

Dagan noted that his region is “the frontline, for all intents and purposes,” especially since so many of its settlements are targeted by Palestinian terrorists.

“It is time the State recognizes this, including in its budget” he said. “A child’s life in Samaria is no less valuable.”

Many villages also do not have any fire brigades or emergency services nearby that could quickly provide assistance to those trapped by debris or injured if a missile explodes in their vicinity.

This, despite the Council making numerous appeals to government authorities on the subject for years, well pre-dating the current conflict, Dagan said.

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The regional leader invited the Israeli public to join him at his office for the afternoon and evening prayers, “along with Torah lessons and meetings with rabbis and public figures.”

By JNS

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan announced on Sunday that he was moving his office to the site of the May 14 terrorist attack in which a pregnant Israeli woman was murdered and her husband was wounded.

“Following the severe terrorist attack in which Tzeela Gez, may God avenge her blood, was murdered, the office of the council head was moved to an open tent opposite the village of Bruqin,” Dagan wrote in a message to residents on Sunday.

Bruqin “is a hornet’s nest,” Dagan charged. “We expect the government of Israel to carry out military operations here in Bruqin, just like it has belatedly begun to do—at the cost of blood—in northern Samaria.”

Throughout the day, Torah study sessions led by yeshivah students from the similarly-named nearby Jewish community of Bruchin will be organized at the site, Dagan said.

The regional leader invited the Israeli public to join him at his office for the afternoon and evening prayers, “along with Torah lessons and meetings with rabbis and public figures.”

Security forces apprehended several suspects in the search for the terrorist who shot and killed Gez, 30, and wounded her husband near their hometown of Bruchin as the couple drove to the delivery room.

“As part of the IDF and Shin Bet manhunt for the terrorist who carried out the shooting attack …, IDF soldiers, guided by the Shin Bet, carried out targeted searches in the village of Bruqin, near the scene of the attack,” the Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday.

The baby was delivered in the hospital. The newborn is listed in serious but stable condition. Gez’s sister told reporters on Sunday that the boy remained sedated at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petach Tikvah.

“He was without oxygen for a long time—some 50 minutes—from the moment Tzeela was murdered until he was delivered,” Lotem Sasson told Arutz 7. “Some of the breathing tubes have already been removed, but he is still sedated. I am really hoping to hear better news today.”

“Tzeela has four children who will grow up without a mother, who was so amazing. I was always trying to learn from her how to be a mother. No one can take her place,” the bereaved sister added during the interview.

The Yesha Council, which represents the interests of the some 500,000 Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, has called on the government of Israel to “turn the city centers and villages [in the Palestinian Authority], from which the murderers emerge, into ruins” in response to the attack.

If the IDF “continues to invest enormous efforts to capture a lone terrorist or a weapons cache, and does not change the security perception on the ground, the State of Israel and its citizens will continue to be in danger,” the Yesha Council said, adding, “We are supporting the minister of defense in quickly changing the security perception.”

Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.

Twenty-seven Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said in its annual report.

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Defying their government’s staunch support for Palestinian statehood and criticism of Israel, over a dozen South African MPs visit Israel and tour Samaria with settlement leader, expressing support for Israeli sovereignty.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A delegation of South African lawmakers visited Israel this week, and toured Israeli towns in Samaria in a show of solidarity with Israel’s settlement movement.

A total of 15 South African MPs were hosted by Samaria Regional Council chief Yossi Dagan, who noted that the lawmakers show of support for the Jewish state came in sharp contrast to the South African government’s staunchly pro-Palestinian position.

“I was pleased to host a delegation of 15 South African MPs for a tour in Samaria,” Dagan said.

“The South African government recently chose to take the most extreme line against the State of Israel and even filed the petition in the genocide case at The Hague. That’s why this visit is so significant.”

During their visit to Samaria, Dagan took the delegation to the Israeli town of Peduel in Samaria, home to a lookout point called the “National Balcony,” which overlooks Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion International Airport, and much of central Israel. Dagan highlighted Israel’s need for strategic depth, noting how narrow the country’s pre-1967 borders were.

By the end of the tour, Dagan said the South African lawmakers had endorsed the extension of Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria

“At the end of the tour, the visiting MPs expressed a different voice — clear and unequivocal:
For the first time, a clear and official expression of support for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

MP Ashley Sauls of the right-wing Patriotic Alliance party declared that “When there is sovereignty – there will be hope for coexistence.”

Steve Swart, an MP for the African Christian Democratic Party, said Israeli sovereignty would increase security in the area.

“It’s important that you have security — and that there is sovereignty over this land.”

In addition to Peduel, the MPs visited the Israeli towns of Har Bracha and Mitzpe Yosef, overlooking the Palestinian Authority-administered biblical city of Nablus (Shechem), as well as the Tomb of Joseph inside Nablus.

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While in theory Jews could now resettle all villages forcibly evacuated in 2005, the IDF made the area a closed military zone through 2028.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In what is being called a “historic” announcement by right-wingers in Israel, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered Wednesday that the Disengagement Law be canceled for all northern Samaria.

This would in theory allow Jews to resettle all four of the villages whose residents were forcibly evacuated in 2005 alongside those in all 21 Israeli towns in the Gaza Strip, home to some 9,000 people.

Technically, Gallant applied a law enacted last year that canceled the settlement ban, which had been applied so far only to Homesh.

Homesh had contained a yeshiva that tenacious students kept rebuilding in temporary structures throughout the years when the authorities periodically tore it down.

The study hall is now housed in a new, permanent building, forming the core of the renewed settlement.

Now Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim could also see their residents legally return, in a move the right wing sees as critical for Israel’s security.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who was one of those expelled from his home in Sa-Nur, congratulated Gallant for the “historic moment of making a historical correction that is of the utmost importance to the state from both a values and security perspective, certainly after [the Hamas invasion of] October 7.”

“After October 7,” he added, “it is clear to everyone that where Jews live there is security. Where Jews do not live, there is terrorism.”

Two of the villages are right next to Jenin, a hotbed of anti-Israel extremism that the IDF has been battling for years, including throughout the ongoing war in Gaza as local terrorists try to stage attacks in support of Hamas.

Gallant himself said that “The Jewish hold on Judea and Samaria guarantees security” and that applying the law canceling the Disengagement “will lead to the development of the settlements and provide security for the residents of the region.”

He also patted himself on the back, saying, “As I have done in all my positions in Israeli governments, I will continue to develop Jewish residence in Judea and Samaria and strengthen the security of the citizens – on the roads and in towns.”

His words, however, were seen as disingenuous by detractors, because almost as he spoke, the head of Central Command, General Yehuda Fuchs, declared the area of Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim a closed military zone through December 2028.

If the order stands, this will prevent any Jews from entering, let alone rebuilding, these settlements.

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