Kiryat Luza ( ar, قرية لوزة, he, קרית לוזה) is a
Samaritan village situated on
Mount Gerizim near the city of
Nablus in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. It is under the joint control of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and the
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine, , and is the only remaining site populated wholly by Samaritans. Kiryat Luza is home to roughly half of the world's total Samaritan population, with the other half located in the Israeli city of
Holon. The village is adjacent to the
Jewish Israeli settlement of
Har Brakha. Until the 1980s, most Samaritans in the West Bank resided in Nablus proper, below Mount Gerizim, and began to relocate to Kiryat Luza due to a spike in violence throughout Israel and the
Palestinian Territories
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely: the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. The ...
during the
First Intifada; the
Israeli military
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branc ...
maintains an active presence in the area (see
Israeli occupation of the West Bank
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank began on 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured and occupied the territory (including East Jerusalem), then occupied by Jordan, during the Six-Day War, and continues to the present day. The status of ...
).
References
Samaritans
Villages in the West Bank
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