Founded 1977 | Area 7.5 km² | |
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Website www.karneishomron.co.il Weather 16°C, Wind NW at 24 km/h, 77% Humidity | ||
Karnei Shomron (Hebrew: קַרְנֵי שׁוֹמְרוֹן, lit. "Rays of (light of) Samaria") is an Israeli settlement and town established in 1977 in the northwestern West Bank, east of Kfar Saba. Karnei Shomron is located 48 kilometres (30 mi) northeast of Tel Aviv and 85 kilometres (53 mi) north of Jerusalem. In 2015 it had a population of 6,905.
Contents
Map of Karnei Shomron
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
History
In 1991, several Israeli settlements were merged to become a single municipality called Karnei Shomron Local Council:
The town borders Nahal Kana, a wadi marking the border between lands that are believed to have been the territory of the tribes of Efraim and Menashe in biblical times. The Nahal Kana Wadi is administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and is defined as a Nature Reserve.
Mitzpe Tzvaim; Midreshet Shilat, a midrasha for girls; and Ramat Gil'ad are also part of Karnei Shomron. Neve Aliza is a religious neighborhood of American-style homes founded by new immigrants from the United States and Canada in 1985.
The chief rabbi of Karnei Shomron is Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevy. Herzl Ben-Ari is the head of the Karnei Shomron Local Council.
On 16 February 2002, two teenagers, 14-year-old Keren Shatsky and 14-year-old Nechemya Amar, were killed and 30 people were wounded, six seriously, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a pizzeria in the Karnei Shomron (located in Ginot Shomron) shopping mall. A third teenager, Rachel Thaler, 16 died of her wounds on 27 February. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.