Netiv HaAsara () is a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

in southern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located in the north-west

Negev The Negev ( ; ) or Naqab (), is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its southern end is the Gulf of Aqaba and the resort town, resort city ...

, just at the northern border with the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Hof Ashkelon Regional Council Hof Ashkelon Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Hof Ashkelon'', ''lit.'' Ashkelon Coast Regional Council) is a regional council (Israel), regional council in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel. As of the year 2019, its po ...

. In it had a population of .

History

The moshav was founded in 1982 by 70 families who were residents of the former

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

Netiv HaAsara Netiv HaAsara () is a moshav in southern Israel. Located in the north-west Negev, just at the northern border with the Gaza Strip, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The moshav ...

in the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

, which was evacuated as a result of the

Camp David Accords The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retre ...

. The original moshav had previously been named

Minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( ''mīnyān'' , Literal translation, lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain Mitzvah, religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism ...

for ten soldiers who were killed in a helicopter accident south of

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

in 1971. After the

Israeli disengagement from Gaza In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well. The disengagement was executed unilaterally: Israeli a ...

in 2005, Netiv HaAsara became the closest community in Israel to the

, located 400 meters away from the edge of the Palestinian town of

Beit Lahia Beit Lahia or Beit Lahiya () is a city in the Gaza Strip, north of Jabalia, in the North Gaza Governorate of the State of Palestine. It sits next to Beit Hanoun and close to the border with Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Burea ...

. At the southern edge of the village, a car park was converted into an

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

base and tanks were deployed. An electric fence was erected to stop infiltration attempts from Gaza, and three concrete walls were built against potential Palestinian snipers. The moshav was a target of

Qassam rocket The Qassam rocket ( ; also ''Kassam'') is a simple, steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. These rockets cannot be fired to target specific military objectives in or near ci ...

Katyusha Katyusha () is a diminutive of the Russian name Ekaterina or Yekaterina, the Russian form of Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in c ...

rockets, and

mortar shell A mortar today is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded cannon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod m ...

ings, In 2007, the

Popular Resistance Committees The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC; , ''Lijān al-Muqāwama al-Shaʿbiyya'') is a coalition of a number of armed Palestinian groups opposed to what they regard as the conciliatory approach of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah towards Isra ...

sent two guerrillas to infiltrate the moshav, but they were killed by the IDF. Dana Galkowicz, a 22-year-old Israeli-Brazilian woman, was killed on 14 July 2005 by a Qassam rocket. On 10 January 2007, a nine-year-old school girl was killed. On 10 March 2010, a Thai worker was killed. On 25 August 2007, Palestinian militants from the

and

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and Maoist organization. It is also frequently referred to as the Democratic Front, or al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya (). It is a member ...

attempted to enter Netiv HaAsara from Gaza, using a ladder to scale the Israel-Gaza border. Two militants were killed by the

. In the

October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

, twenty of the moshav's residents were killed in a massacre. Since then, most residents have been displaced; as of October 2024, only about 100 people lived there.

Tourism

In the 2010s Netiv HaAsara became an increasingly popular tourist attraction among foreign visitors despite the threat of rocket attacks from neighboring Gaza. An observation platform designed by architect Zvi Pasternak - expected to open in spring 2018 - will enable visitors to see

Gaza City Gaza City, also called Gaza, is a city in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Gaza Governorate. Located on the Mediterranean coast, southwest of Jerusalem, it was home to Port of Gaza, Palestine's only port. With a population of ...

to the south and

Ashkelon Ashkelon ( ; , ; ) or Ashqelon, is a coastal city in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The modern city i ...

to the north. The Path to Peace wall mosaic art project and educational center is located on the border between Gaza and Israel at Netiv HaAsara."Living under a cloud of terror in the land of milk and honey" ''Solaris Traveller'' (Jan. 5, 2019)
(accessed Feb. 20, 2023)

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Authority control Moshavim Populated places established in 1982 Gaza envelope Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1982 establishments in Israel