The Israeli government has officially approved the construction of more than 1,000 new housing units in the town of Eli, a community in southern Samaria that has twice been targeted in deadly terrorist attacks in recent years.
The Binyamin Regional Council confirmed the approval on Wednesday, noting that the new homes will be built across three neighborhoods—414 units in Nof Harim and Hayovel, and another 650 in the Nofei Eliraz neighborhood. The expansion is expected to nearly double Eli’s current size.
“This decision comes after persistent effort, especially following the terror attack at the gas station two years ago,” said Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz. “Thanks to the extensive work by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s team, the final approvals have come through despite many objections.”
Eli’s gas station, located along Route 60, was the site of two terror attacks in less than two years. On June 20, 2023, Hamas gunmen murdered four Israeli civilians there, including two teenagers. A second attack on February 29, 2024, claimed the lives of two more people, one of them a 16-year-old.
The Council is now working with Smotrich—who also holds a Defense Ministry role overseeing civilian affairs in Judea and Samaria—to approve an additional 347 homes in the town’s Palgei Mayim neighborhood.
“May we continue to share good news and celebrate the rebuilding of our homeland,” Ganz added.
This latest expansion follows a broader move by the Israeli Security Cabinet, which recently approved 22 new Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria. Among them are two communities in northern Samaria that had been evacuated during the 2005 Gaza disengagement.
Some of the approved sites were unauthorized outposts now moving toward legal status, while others represent entirely new communities.
“We made a historic decision for the settlement enterprise,” said Smotrich last week. “We are renewing the Jewish presence in northern Samaria and reinforcing Israel’s eastern security axis.”
“With God’s help, we are returning Israel to a course of building, vision, and Zionism. Settlement in our ancestral homeland is the protective wall of the State of Israel, and today we fortified that wall in a significant way,” he declared.
In parallel, Israeli officials are pushing back diplomatically against efforts by several European countries to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. According to Israel Hayom, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer have warned counterparts in France, the UK, and other nations that such a move could trigger Israeli sovereignty initiatives in Judea and Samaria.
“Unilateral actions against Israel will be met with unilateral actions by Israel,” Sa’ar reportedly told them.
Content from JNS was used in this report.
