Sa-Nur in northern Samaria was razed by the Israeli government, and its residents were expelled, as part of the 2005 disengagement plan, which also targeted the nearby communities of Homesh, Ganim, and Kadim, along with all 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip.
On Dec. 31, 2025, the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council approved the master plan for the construction of 126 housing units in Sa-Nur. The approval constitutes the legal basis for rebuilding the community and the return of Israeli families to the site.
Speaking to JNS at the Balcony of Israel observatory in the community of Peduel, during a tour with pro-sovereignty activists on Jan. 5, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan—who lived in Sa-Nur until the disengagement—struggled to hold back tears as he spoke about the significance of the approvals.
“On the night before the [2005] evacuation, we swore we would return – that the Israeli flag would fly in Sa-Nur again,” Dagan said. “After years of struggle, arrests, demolitions and rebuilding, we learned that perseverance works.”
Dagan said the turning point toward the return to northern Samaria started in 2021, following the murder of Yehuda Dimentman, an Israeli married father of a young child, who was shot dead by Arab terrorists at the entrance to Homesh.
Days after Dimentman’s murder, 15,000 Israelis participated in an organized march in the pouring rain from the nearby community of Shavei Shomron to Homesh in support of the yeshivah there.
“The entire national camp understood at that point, the situation must be mended,” said Dagan.
Preparations are now underway for the return to Sa-Nur, with families and students already in Homesh, new farms and communities taking shape, and IDF bases being reestablished in the area, he said.
“Northern Samaria is being rebuilt,” he added joyfully.
Dagan along with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a long-time proponent of the return to northern Samaria whose brother lived in Sa-Nur as well, toured the site on the day of the approvals. (Smotrich also serves as an additional minister within the Defense Ministry with authority over civil affairs in Judea and Samaria.)
There, Smotrich thanked Dagan along with the Settlement Administration, the Civil Administration and all professional staff involved.
Speaking to Dagan, Smotrich said, “For 20 years you have led the demand to return, and now you are leading the professional work of submitting the plan.”
He also thanked the IDF, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and Defense Minister Israel Katz, adding, “We are erasing the disgrace of the disengagement from northern Samaria and resettling the Land of Israel.”
During the visit, Dagan added that the return to Sa-Nur represents a moment of historical justice.
He said he had been struggling for 20 years to rectify the crime of the disengagement and the destruction of the communities of northern Samaria, all the while dreaming of the day Sa-Nur would be rebuilt.
“The moment in which the government of Israel and the Higher Planning Council approve the deposit of the Sa-Nur master plan is a Zionist moment, a Jewish moment, a moment of correcting an injustice and a moment of a new beginning,” Dagan said.
‘A revolution in Judea and Samaria’
Omer Rahamim, CEO of the Yesha Council, told JNS he agreed that the submission of building plans for Sa-Nur is a significant step toward correcting the injustice of the disengagement.
“The State of Israel is beginning to restore what was forcibly uprooted. ... The Yesha Council will continue to work to expand communities in Judea and Samaria and strengthen Israel’s hold on the area,” he said.
Rahamim thanked Dagan for his leadership and persistence along with Smotrich, who he said is “leading a revolution in Judea and Samaria.”
Attorney Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and the former director of the Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, told JNS the reestablishment of Sa-Nur is very welcome.
The disengagement was a shameful decision and a direct prize for terrorism that failed to achieve any its goals toward achieving security quiet, he said. Rather all it did was remove Jews and Jewish communities from their ancestral homeland, while creating more security problems, he added.
“The presence of Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria has proven over and over to enhance security, and serve as support for military security operations,” he said.
“Removing those communities is obviously something that should be amended and fixed. Rebuilding Sa-Nur is righting that wrong,” Hirsch said.
The Sa-Nur approvals follow the March 21, 2023, Knesset decision to repeal articles of the 2005 Gaza Disengagement Law banning Israelis from entering and residing in the aforementioned four Samaria communities.
In May, 2025 Israel’s Security Cabinet green-lit the re-establishment of Homesh and Sa-Nur, at the same time as it approved another 20 Jewish communities throughout Judea and Samaria.
