"Independent estimates of the number of dead in Gaza are much higher, exceeding 200,000."
Jewish settlers re-establish Ganim settlement as officials vow to 'stay forever' in occupied West Bank
Israel is reversing the 2005 disengagement plan, which evacuated Jewish settlers from four northern West Bank settlements and the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza
Jewish settlers re-established the Ganim settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank on 13 August, two decades after it was evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan.
Israeli politicians and Jewish settlers held a ceremony on Thursday to celebrate their return to the settlement, which includes one paved road and pre-fabricated homes.
Attendees at the ceremony included Yossi Dagan, head of the so-called Samaria Regional Council; Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz; Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi; and members of the Knesset.
“Here, we are staying forever,” Defense Minister Katz stated at the ceremony after arriving by helicopter. “The era of evacuations is over. From here, we only build,” councilman Dagan claimed.
Israel began establishing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank after conquering the Palestinian territory in 1967 during the Six-Day War, which Palestinians call the Naksa, or “setback.”
Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
The Israeli army demolished Palestinian shops on both sides of the road leading to the Ganim settlement from Israel in recent days.
Israeli troops also blocked several dirt roads to Palestinian communities with piles of rubble, the Times of Israel reported.
WAFA wrote that the settlers’ return to Ganim represents “a dangerous development that would redraw the geopolitical map of Jenin governorate and impose new facts on the ground.”
Tareq Ighbariyeh, the settlement affairs official for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Jenin governorate, told WAFA that re-establishing the settlement would “fragment the governorate,” increase the frequency of attacks on Palestinians by Jewish settlers, and cut off Palestinian communities from one another.
The move reflects the “growing influence of settlers and settlement councils over the extremist Israeli government” and undermines the possibility of establishing a geographically contiguous Palestinian state, Ighbariyeh added.
Jewish settlers evacuated Ganim in 2005 as part of the disengagement implemented by former prime minister Ariel Sharon.
A former general known for his role in multiple massacres of Palestinians, Sharon ordered settlers to withdraw from the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza and from four settlements in the northern West Bank in exchange for permission from US President George W. Bush to expand settlement building elsewhere in the West Bank.
The move angered settlers, who believe that their religion permits Jews to displace Palestinians and take their land and forbids Jews from giving up land conquered from non-Jews.
However, the Knesset repealed provisions of the law governing the disengagement plan in March 2023, preparing the way for the settlers to return to Ganim and the other three settlements included in the agreement.
In late 2025, the Israeli government approved the re-establishment of Ganim as part of a decision to establish 25 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The settlers’ return was accompanied by attacks on Palestinian residents, the establishment of a military post, road closures, and restrictions on farmers’ movement, WAFA noted.
Jewish settlers are also seeking to rebuild the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza as part of an effort to ethnically cleanse the strip of its 2 million Palestinians.
Israel now occupies over 60 percent of the strip, which has largely been destroyed after nearly three years of Israel’s bombing and demolition campaign in the devastated enclave.
Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza has killed over 73,000 people, mostly women and children, while leaving most of its residents living in squalid tent camps in the 40 percent of Gaza still nominally under Hamas’ control.
Independent estimates of the number of dead in Gaza are much higher, exceeding 200,000.
Israeli leaders say they want to make life in Gaza so dangerous and unbearable that Palestinians choose to “voluntarily migrate” to third countries.