Sa-Nur is one of four former settlements in the West Bank approved by the Israeli government two decades after settlers were evicted.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 19 Apr 2026<\/span>19 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Israel Katz have 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 \u201cOn this exciting day, we celebrate a historic correction to the criminal expulsion,\u201d Finance Minister Smotrich said in his speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday, the AFP news agency reported. He said Israeli authorities were also \u201cburying the idea of a Palestinian state\u201d.<\/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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yossi Dagan, head of the West Bank Settlements Council, was among those who left Sa-Nur in 2005, and he described moving back as a \u201cpersonal closing of a circle\u201d, adding: \u201cWe have returned to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sa-Nur settlement was evicted as part of the disengagement policy that also saw settlers removed from Gaza. Settlers have attempted to re-establish it over the years, and it is one of four former West Bank settlements to recently be 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 prohibited Israeli settlers from staying 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 among a list of illegal outposts recognised as settlements by the government.<\/p>\n Around 700,000 settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with settlement expansion increasing under the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly since the formation of his right-wing coalition following the 2022 election.<\/p>\n Rights groups say that settlement approvals, along with settler violence, have further accelerated since October 7, 2023. A Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in Deir Jarir, near Ramallah, on April 11, while the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reports<\/a> that March was one of the deadliest months of settler violence on record in the West Bank.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/christine-maguire-1770552715.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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