JENIN, August 13, 2026 (WAFA) — Israeli colonists re-established the Ganim settlement on Palestinian-owned land east of Jenin city on Thursday, 21 years after it was evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan.
Israeli occupation forces closed entrances and secondary roads along the main road from Haddad Roundabout to the Al-Jalama military checkpoint, citing the need to provide security for the colonists and Israeli officials taking part in the re-establishment of the settlement.
Participants 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.
Tareq Ighbariyeh, the settlement affairs official in Jenin governorate, told WAFA that the colonists’ return to Ganim represents a dangerous development that would redraw the geopolitical map of Jenin governorate and impose new facts on the ground.
He said the re-establishment of the settlement would “fragment the governorate,” turning the area into what resembles a military barracks, increasing the frequency of attacks and confrontations and threatening geographical contiguity between Palestinian communities.
Ighbariyeh said the move also 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.
The re-establishment of Ganim comes days after Israeli occupation forces began demolishing 27 Palestinian structures in Jenin governorate. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said that demolition operations in the areas of Ganim and Kadim are intended to pave the way for the return of settlements there.
The Israeli government approved in late 2025 the re-establishment of Ganim and Kadim as part of a decision involving the establishment or reorganization of 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israel implemented its disengagement plan in 2005, withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and evacuating four settlements in the northern West Bank: Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sa-Nur.
In March 2023, the Knesset repealed provisions of a law that had prohibited settlers from entering the four evacuated settlements, paving the way for their return, particularly to the site of Homesh, where a religious school was rebuilt. The settlers’ return was accompanied by attacks on Palestinian residents and military measures, including the establishment of a military post, road closures and restrictions on farmers’ movement.
The move comes amid broader Israeli efforts to expand colonial control over the northern West Bank by facilitating settlers’ return to sites evacuated in 2005 and preparing the infrastructure, roads and military positions needed to support their presence. It also coincides with the transfer of powers of the so-called Civil Administration to far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich, further advancing Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank and the imposition of new settlement realities aimed at undermining the possibility of establishing a geographically contiguous Palestinian state.
K.T
