Sa-Nur is one of four former West Bank settlements approved by the Israeli government two decades after evicting settlers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published on 19 April 2026<\/span>19 April 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz attended the official reopening of the Sa-Nur settlement in the occupied West Bank, nearly 21 years after the illegal settlement was evacuated in 2005.<\/p>\n “On this exciting day, we celebrate historic reform in criminal expungement,” Finance Minister Smotrich said in a speech at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday, reports AFP news agency. He said Israeli officials were “killing even the idea of \u200b\u200ba Palestinian state”.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Authorities have approved 126 housing units in the northern West Bank settlement, south of Jenin, and 16 families have now moved in. <\/span><\/p>\n West Bank Settlements Council head Yossi Dagan was among those who left Sa-Nur in 2005, and described the return as “a personal closing of a cycle”, adding: “We have come back to stay.”<\/p>\n The Sa-Nour settlement was evicted as part of the disengagement policy, which also saw settlers removed from Gaza. Settlers have attempted to re-establish it for years, and it is one of four former West Bank settlements recently approved by the Israeli government in violation of international law.<\/p>\n In March 2023, the Knesset passed an amendment to the disengagement law that barred Israeli settlers from living in the former settlements of Sa-Nur, Homesh, Ganim and Kadim. Last May, Smotrich, himself a settler, announced plans for 22 new settlements in the West Bank, including Sa-Nur and Homesh. In December, Ganim and Kadim were included in the list of illegal outposts recognized by the government as settlements.<\/p>\n About 700,000 residents live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with settlement expansion increasing under the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially since the formation of his right-wing coalition following the 2022 elections.<\/p>\n Rights groups say settler violence as well as settlement approvals have further accelerated since October 7, 2023. On 11 April, a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli settlers in Deir Jarir, near Ramallah, while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reports<\/a> March was one of the deadliest months of settler violence on record in the West Bank.<\/p>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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