Israeli settlers inaugurate synagogue at West Bank outpost of Homesh

Israeli settlers gathered at the Homesh outpost in the occupied West Bank to celebrate the inauguration of a newly built synagogue, in a ceremony that drew settler leader Yossi Dagan and Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech.

Dagan took part in the celebration and wrote on the synagogue's Torah scroll. Addressing those present, he said the community was bringing a Torah scroll into a well-constructed and organised settlement with an impressive community. He added that the place had seen settlements destroyed, which he said was answered by a wave of terror across Israel, and that the settlers were now correcting that by returning to what he described as their homeland.

Son Har-Melech, a member of the party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, spoke to people at the event. She said the families and communities present were flourishing and sprouting up like mushrooms after rain. Recalling that she had led an amendment to the Disengagement Law as someone expelled from Homesh in northern Samaria, she said she had known even on the day of the expulsion that the settlers would return and rebuild these communities, and that the reality now exceeded her dreams.

The footage showed settlers dancing and holding Torah scrolls, Dagan shaking hands with an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who had a holstered gun at his side, and the Torah scroll resting on a table. Newly installed housing caravans stood at the site, with Palestinian villages visible in the background.

Israel dismantled the settlement of Homesh in the northern West Bank in 2005 as part of its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Last year, the cabinet approved new Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including one previously evacuated under the 2005 disengagement plan.

The West Bank has become more dangerous for Palestinians as Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, approved more than 100 new settlements. Extremist settlers routinely enter Palestinian towns, clashing with villagers and burning homes, mosques and cars. Violence between settlers and Palestinians has surged in recent months, leaving four Palestinians and two Israelis dead in the northern West Bank.

Some 2.8 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule in the West Bank, with the Palestinian Authority exercising limited autonomy in population centres. The settlers, who now number over 560,000, are Israeli citizens. Netanyahu's government has presided over a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war. The United Nations and much of the international community consider such construction illegal, and the Palestinians say it is the main barrier to lasting peace.