Slav () was an

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 ...

in the

Gush Katif Gush Katif () was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza Strip. In August 2005, the Israel Defense Forces removed the 8,600 Israeli residents from their homes after a decision from the Cabinet of Israel. The communities were demo ...

settlement bloc, located in the south-west edge of 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 ...

that existed until 2005.

History

Slav was founded as a paramilitary

Nahal Nahal () (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training in entrepr ...

settlement in 1980. The settlement was named after the bird that the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

ate in the desert during

the Exodus The Exodus (Hebrew language, Hebrew: יציאת מצרים, ''Yəṣīʾat Mīṣrayīm'': ) is the Origin myth#Founding myth, founding myth of the Israelites whose narrative is spread over four of the five books of the Torah, Pentateuch (specif ...

from

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 ...

. In 1982, with the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty and subsequent withdrawal from 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 ...

, Slav became a transit camp of former residents evicted from Sinai and temporary home to the Midreshet Hadarom girls' seminary. At the beginning of the 90's, the location was divided into a military base and a residential civilian area with several families. In 2001, a small group of people including staff and students of the nearby 'Otzem' pre-military preparatory school in

Bnei Atzmon Bnei Atzmon () was an Israeli settlement previously in the Sinai Peninsula, later moved to the Gaza Strip before being destroyed in 2005. History Bnei Atzmon was founded in 1979 in the Yamit region of the Sinai Peninsula as a response to t ...

moved to settle the village and strengthen its numbers.

Unilateral disengagement

The 12 families of Slav left their homes on August 21, 2005, as part of

Israel's unilateral disengagement plan In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlement, Israeli settlements there. As part of this process, four Israeli settlements in the West Bank were dismantled as well. The disengagement was executed unil ...

. The houses were destroyed and the area was abandoned. {{Authority control Former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip Populated places established in 1980 Religious Israeli settlements Nahal settlements Villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict