Israel officially reopened the West Bank settlement of Ganim on Thursday more than 20 years after it withdrew from the community, emblematic of the current government's policy of rapid settlement expansion.
The smell of freshly poured asphalt hung in the air above Ganim's newly-made and only street, where future residents and their families -- who had come to help with the move -- smiled at the sight of their pre-fabricated homes.
"Here, this is the Land of Israel. Here, we are staying forever," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said at the ceremony, after arriving by helicopter.
Ganim is one of four Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that Israel evacuated under former prime minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan in 2005.
The move came partly because of their isolated location in the north of the territory among many Palestinian cities and villages.
Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, settlement construction and expansion have soared, including with the official re-establishment of three of the four evacuated communities -- Ganim, Sa-Nur and Homesh.
In Ganim, about two dozen pre-fabricated homes have already been installed, while steamrollers and other construction machinery busily created new space for future houses on the hillside on Thursday.
About a hundred people from Israel and other West Bank settlements attended the ceremony, including Katz and Yossi Dagan, head of the Israeli authority in charge of settlements in the northern West Bank.
"The era of evacuation is over -- from here, we only build," Dagan said.
In the valley below, Palestinians AFP spoke to feared Ganim's construction would make their lives harder, or even mean displacement in the long run.
On both sides of the road leading to the settlement from Israel, the army has demolished stores in recent days and blocked several dirt roads to Palestinian communities with piles of rubble.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the territory, which are illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians.
Violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.
