Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Roi Hadi
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan in Sa-Nur, Dec. 31, 2025
(JNS) — 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 started in 2021, following the murder of Yehuda Dimentman, a father of a child, who was killed by Arab terrorists in Homesh.
Days after Dimentman’s murder, 15,000 Israelis participated in an organized march 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, toured the site.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
