[editor-surveyor]

.
No the Samaritans were not Hebrew, they were transplants brought in by Shalmanesser to tend the land. You apparently do not believe the word of Yehova.

[Cronos]

I believe in the word of God -- you evidently don't -- and science only confirms that God stayed true to His word about the Israelistes: Genetics and the history of the Samaritans: Y-chromosomal microsatellites and genetic affinity between Samaritans and Cohanim.

. the Samaritans were closely related to Cohanim.

This result supports the position of the Samaritans that they are descendants from the tribes of Israel dating to before the Assyrian exile in 722-720 BCE.

GEnetics and the Samaritans - Rosenberg

The book of Chronicles compounds the difference in interpretation of Samaritan history. Recalling that Hezekiah ruled the southern kingdom of Judea from 715 BCE, after the Assyrian victory, the following passage seems to contradict the above statement from II Kings:

And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the home of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the Passover.” (II Chronicles 30: 1)

this verse of Chronicles actually implies that King Hezekiah was trying to contact Israelites from Samaria, and that some Samaritans remained in that area after the Assyrian conquest

In fact, II Chronicles 30: 1 may be interpreted as conÀ rming that a large fraction of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (i.e., Samaritans) remained in Israel after the Assyrian exile.