Israel’s Interior Ministry on Sunday issued an ID card addendum listing Homesh as a home address for the first time since the northern Samaria community was evacuated under the 2005 Gaza disengagement.
The first ID addendum listing Homesh in over a decade came some five weeks after the Interior Ministry issued an official “settlement symbol,” re-establishing it as a legal community for all intents and purposes, Israel’s Channel 14 News broadcaster reported on Monday.
The Israeli Cabinet in May 2025 approved the rebuilding of Homesh and the nearby town of Sa-Nur, at the same time as it green-lit establishing 20 additional Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria.
The disengagement entailed the destruction of Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim in northern Samaria, in addition to 21 Gaza towns.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who was deported from Sa-Nur, called the ID card “another step on the way back home,” saying the council will continue to work on developing new towns.
Dagan thanked Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the Homesh Yeshivah and activists who worked for years to make a return to the community possible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led an unprecedented drive to expand control of Judea and Samaria, approving some 50,000 homes and more than 50 Jewish communities since December 2022.
On Sunday, Jerusalem decided to resume land registration in Judea and Samaria for the first time since the 1967 Six-Day War, allowing for “extensive areas” of state-owned lands to be registered as such.
Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, according to a 2025 survey.
Fifty-eight percent of Israeli Jews believe that communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the country, according to a survey the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published on March 11, 2025.
