In a highly symbolic action for Israel’s settler movement, lawmakers approved a first step toward resettling evacuated areas amid spiraling Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

Israeli lawmakers have repealed a 2005 act that saw four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank dismantled when it withdrew from the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s parliament has repealed legislation that ordered the dismantling of four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in a move that critics denounced as a step towards the creeping annexation of the territory.

Israel's settler movement celebrated Tuesday after parliament annulled part of a law banning them from living in areas of the occupied West Bank the government evacuated in 2005.Israeli anti-settlement movement Peace Now said the parliamentary decision would spark the construction of more West Bank outposts -- settlements established by Israelis without prior government approval.

Israeli lawmakers had long resisted settler demands to amend the disengagement law, which dismantled all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank, including Homesh.

Israeli activists carry a tent in the abandoned Jewish settlement of Homesh, in the northern West Bank, March 27, 2007. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (WEST BANK)/File Photo