Government officials mark repopulation of Homesh settlement in West Bank

Government and settlement officials marked the reestablishment of the settlement of Homesh in the West Bank on Thursday as 10 families took up residence. It was the final step of a lengthy process to legalize and repopulate the settlement, which was evacuated in 2005 as part of the Gaza disengagement.

Homesh was evacuated in 2005 along with three other northern West Bank settlements — Sa Nur, Ganim and Kadim — as part of the Ariel Sharon government’s plan to afford Palestinians territorial contiguity in the region.

The new residents celebrated their official resettlement of Homesh in a ceremony attended by Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strock, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, Chairman of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan, head of the Amana settlements organization Ze’ev Hever, and other pro-settlement dignitaries.

“We chose Homesh as the arrowhead to lead the rectification for all the sins of the disengagement, the sins of Oslo and the betrayal of the Land of Israel,” Strock said at the ceremony, referencing the Oslo Accords.

The settlement movement long chafed at the dismantlement and evacuation of these settlements, and in 2023, the government, spearheaded by Edelstein, repealed the legislation that had enabled their evacuation.

Writing on X on Thursday, Edelstein said he had “dreamed of this day” for the past 20 years, vowing that “Homesh will be just the beginning.”

Thursday’s resettlement ceremony marks the culmination of moves to rebuild Homesh, albeit in a slightly different location, pushed for by the strong pro-settlement elements of the current government. Numerous attempts by far-right activists were made over the years to illegally rebuild parts of the outpost before it was legalized by the government.

In May 2023, a yeshiva building was established there, and students and families have been living in the dormitories ever since. In August 2023, the High Court rejected a petition that demanded buildings there be dismantled, saying that the relocation from private Palestinian land fulfilled the demands of Palestinian landowners in the area to regain access to their territory.

In May 2025, the cabinet formally approved the legalization of the settlement, as well as Sa Nur, although the latter is yet to be repopulated.

The current government has established or legalized 69 new settlements, and some 120 illegal settlement outposts have been built on its watch. The EU and other countries have strongly criticized the government’s deepening control of the West Bank and expansion of the settlements.

In September, a kindergarten was opened in Homesh, which was hailed by Education Minister Yoav Kisch as “planting new roots of education and the future” in Homesh and by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as “not just an educational event but a symbol of rebirth and renewed life in the heart of Samaria.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.