Nitzanim () is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

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 between

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 ...

and

Ashdod Ashdod (, ; , , or ; Philistine language, Philistine: , romanized: *''ʾašdūd'') is the List of Israeli cities, sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District (Israel), Southern District, it lies on the Mediterranean ...

on the Nitzanim dunes, 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

Nitzanim was established on 8 December 1943 on a 400-acre plot of land purchased by the

Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

in 1942. On the grounds is a large building that became known as the "mansion." The first residents were new immigrants, some of them

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...

. The kibbutz was bombarded and captured by the

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian army during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

in the

Battle of Nitzanim The Battle of Nitzanim was fought between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian Army in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, on June 7, 1948 (29 Iyar, 5708 in the Hebrew calendar). It was the first major Egyptian victory of the war, and one of the ...

. Of Nitzanim's 141 members, 37 were killed and many were taken prisoner. Following the war, the kibbutz was moved four kilometres south of the original location,Historical sites in Nitzan
Israel Inside Out onto the land of the newly depopulated

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village of

Hamama Hamama (; also known in Byzantine times as ''Peleia'') was a Palestinian people, Palestinian town of over 5,000 inhabitants that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was located 24 kilometers north of Gaza City, Gaza. It was con ...

. The original site of the kibbutz became Nitzanim Youth Village in 1949. After the

youth village A youth village () is a boarding school model first developed in Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s to care for groups of children and teenagers fleeing the Nazis. Henrietta Szold and Recha Freier were the pioneers in this sphere, known as youth ...

closed in 1990, the community settlement of Nitzan was founded there. File:ניצנים - נחלת ס.זלצמן, דונידין, זילנד החדשה 100 דונם-JNF040431.jpeg, Nitzanim 1945 File:ניצנים - עבודה בחריש.-JNF045691.jpeg, Nitzanim ploughing 1945 File:ניצנים - מראה כללי.-JNF045230.jpeg, Nitzanim 1947 File:Nitzanim bombarded.jpg, Homes in Nitzanim destroyed in the Arab–Israeli War

References

External links

Official website
(in Hebrew)
The Battle of Nitzanim, exhibition in the Ministry of Defense archives
{{Authority control Kibbutzim Populated places established in 1943 Jewish villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1943 establishments in Mandatory Palestine

History

See also

References

External links