The cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new upper-end neighborhood, Neveh Maoz Daniel, was held Thursday at Karnei Shomron, in Samaria.

The neighborhood will include 50 new housing units. It is being established after ten years in which Israel did not carry out any new construction projects in Karnei Shomron.

The ceremony was attended by Karnei Shomron Local Authority Head Herzl Ben-Ari, Minister Benny Begin, Yesha Council Head Danny Dayan and others.

"I hope that this is just a harbinger of [further] construction projects in Karnei Shomron and in western Samaria in general," Ben Ari said. "The construction we are embarking on today comes after about ten years in which we were ´frozen´ de facto, and we were unable to provide a wide and satisfactory solution for the national housing shortage – a shortage that affected our community as well." (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 03/22/12)