The National Council for Planning and Construction on Tuesday approved the founding of a new community in the area of Lahish. The community will be called Givaot Hazan and will be used to house people evacuated from the former Gaza Strip settlement of Neve Dekalim.

A number of conservation groups have strongly opposed the building of the community, arguing that it will cause harm to an area of great environmental importance and physical beauty, which had been designated a "Biosphere" zone reserved for conservation.

The Jewish Agency has argued that the founding of the community will not cause harm to the environment.

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The measure to found the community was passed last week by a committee within the National Council for Planning and Construction, as part of the government's efforts to found new communities to house evacuees from the Gaza Strip.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel has stated that measures to house the evacuees should be limited to expanding pre-existing communities in the Lachish area and the new community of Heruv, which is located in an area where it will not cause significant damage to the environment.

The Society for the Protection of Nature has stated that close to where the proposed community would be built, there is already a plan to build thousands of apartments in the towns of Hiran and Carmit, and the evacuees can easily be absorbed into these communities, without building a new community that will cause damage to the environment.