The Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration agency gave preliminary approval on Wednesday for a new construction masterplan for the formerly evacuated but recently re-established settlement of Sa Nur in the northern Samaria region of the West Bank.

The masterplan includes plans for the eventual construction of 126 housing units in the settlement.

The Samaria District Council, the municipal authority in which Sa Nur is located, said that the masterplan will be given final approval within two months.

Sa Nur was one of four settlements in the northern West Bank that were evacuated as part of, and in conjunction with, the 2005 Disengagement Plan from Gaza.

The evacuation of those four settlements — Ganim, Kadim, Homesh and Sa Nur — was designed to enable territorial contiguity in the region for the Palestinians and advance the 2003 Road Map for Peace initiative for bringing about a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The current government repealed the sections of the 2005 Disengagement Law that allowed for the evacuation of those settlements, and

© The Times of Israel