Karnei Shomron (Hebrew: קַרְנֵי שׁוֹמְרוֹן, lit. "Rays (of light) of Samaria") is an Israeli settlement organized as a local council established in 1977 in the 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 2022 it had a population of 9,920.
History
In 1991, several Israeli settlements were merged to become a single municipality called Karnei Shomron Local Council:
Karnei Shomron - established in 1977, 450 families
Ginot Shomron - established in 1984, 850 families
Neve Menachem/Neve Oramin - established in 1991, 220 families
The town borders Wadi Qana, 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.[2] The Nahal Kana Wadi is administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and is defined as a Nature Reserve.[3]
Mitzpe Tzvaim; Midreshet Shilat, a midrasha for girls;[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
The chief rabbi of Karnei Shomron is Yitzhak HaLevy.[citation needed] Igal Lahav is the head of the Karnei Shomron Local Council.[4]
During the second intifada, on 16 February 2002, two people 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. Rachel Thaler, 16 died of her wounds on 27 February. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.[5]
