Karnei Shomron (, 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 km northeast of Tel Aviv and 85 km north of Jerusalem. In it had a population of. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

History and archaeology

Confiscation of Palestinian land

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from four nearby Palestinian villages of in order to construct Karnei Shomron:

Local Council neighborhoods

In 1991, several Israeli settlements were merged to become a single municipality called Karnei Shomron Local Council: Also part of Karnei Shomron are:

Nature

The town borders Wadi Qana, a wadi marking the border between lands that are believed to have been the territory of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (Menashe) in biblical times. Wadi Qana, Hebrew name: Nahal Kana, is administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and is defined as a nature reserve.

Leadership

The chief rabbi of Karnei Shomron is Yitzhak HaLevy. Igal Lahav is the head of the Karnei Shomron Local Council.

2002 mall attack

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 Ginot Shomron shopping mall in Karnei Shomron. Rachel Thaler, 16 died of her wounds on 27 February. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Notable residents