The ceremony was underscored by provocative declarations against Palestinian statehood and explicit calls to begin the resettlement of the Gaza Strip.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and a settler himself, hailed the event as a "historic correction to the criminal expulsion from Northern Samaria." His comments targeted the 2005 disengagement policy, which saw Israel withdraw from four northern West Bank settlements and the Gaza Strip.

"We are cancelling the shame of the disengagement, burying the idea of a Palestinian state and returning to the settlement of Sa-Nur," Smotrich declared.

The move marks a definitive challenge to a July 2024 advisory opinion by the ICJ, which declared Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful and ordered it ended "as rapidly as possible." The Court found that settlement expansion violates the Fourth Geneva Convention and that Israeli measures in the West Bank amount to prohibited racial segregation and apartheid.

This expansion mirrors the hardening military occupation in Gaza, where the "Yellow Line" -- a permanent fortification and buffer zone -- has bisected the territory. Israel now occupies nearly 60 percent of the strip, including all land crossings; these seizures and the systematic destruction of infrastructure are currently focal points in a separate, ongoing ICJ genocide case, mounted by South Africa against Israel.

In Sa-Nur, 16 families have already moved into newly approved prefabricated homes, including Yossi Dagan, head of the northern West Bank Settlements Council. Dagan, who was originally evicted from the site in 2005, stated after cutting the ribbon at the ceremony: "No more uprootings, no more retreats. We have returned to stay." Authorities have already approved 126 housing units for the site.

The resurgence of these settlements occurs amid a surge in settler violence against Palestinian farmers and intensified military operations in West Bank cities like Jenin and Tulkarem. Human rights observers have characterized these operations as "domicide" -- the deliberate rendering of Palestinian areas uninhabitable through the destruction of roads, water, and power systems to force mass displacement.

Since 1967, more than 500,000 Israelis have moved into West Bank settlements among some three million Palestinians. Under Netanyahu’s current government -- considered the most right-wing in Israel’s history -- expansion has accelerated significantly, with over 100 new settlements approved since 2022.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Follow us on:

Facebook

Instagram

Whatsapp