WEST BANK, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) approved the annexation of about 695 dunums of Palestinian land it had declared as “state land,” with the aim of establishing a new settler neighborhood near the illegal Karnei Shomron settlement in the West Bank.
The IOA considers the site of the planned neighborhood as “strategically important,” serving its efforts to separate Salfit Governorate from Qalqilya and deepen the geographic isolation between Palestinian communities.
According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, an attempt was made in 2019 to push forward the plan based on a government decision dating back to 1984. However, legal and procedural obstacles, along with the presence of many Palestinian communities, prevented its final approval at the time.
The current plan includes linking the Karnei Shomron settlement with both Elkana and Etz Efraim settlements, which are built on lands annexed from the village of Mas-ha in Salfit. The plan targets an area of about 700 dunums declared as “state land,” in addition to around 200 dunums owned by Israeli businessmen, allocated for the construction of housing units for ultra-Orthodox settlers.
According to the plan, the project is expected to include thousands of settler homes, as a prelude to transforming Karnei Shomron into a city. It will also link Route 5 with Route 505, creating a continuous Israeli geographic corridor and isolating Palestinian villages from each other.
