Israeli government cabinet meeting
Israeli government cabinet meetingOhad Zwigenberg/Flash 90

The Israeli Security Cabinet voted unanimously Thursday evening to approve the establishment of a new town in Samaria to house the evictees from the destroyed Shomron community of Amona.

Following the cabinet’s decision, the government polled ministers not included on the Security Cabinet, looking to gain a majority from the entire ruling coalition.

According to the cabinet decision, the new town will be built near the existing community of Shilo.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised residents of Amona he would build a replacement town to house them in Samaria, after an earlier plan to relocate Amona to an alternative site near its original location was nixed by the Supreme Court which accepted a leftist organization's claim that the land was Arab..

During the meeting of the Security Cabinet, the Prime Minister notified ministers that 2,000 of the 5,700 housing units approved for construction in Judea and Samaria in January were now approved for immediate planning and marketing.

In addition, the Prime Minister informed the cabinet that nearly 1,000 dunams (247 acres) of land in Samaria would be declared state land. The land in question is located near the Jewish towns of Eli, and Adei Ad.