Tel Katifa () was a small

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 ...

located in the northeast end of 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 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 ...

, and evacuated in Israel's disengagement of 2005.

History

Tel Katifa was named after the adjacent

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

from the

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ite period. Tel Katifa was founded in May 1992 on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast by second generation Gush Katif single farmers. The residents understood that they would need to attract families in order for the settlement to develop properly and in 1998, several from

Ganei Tal Ganei Tal () is a moshav in central Israel. Located to the south of Gedera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Nahal Sorek Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village was established in 2010 by former settlers who had be ...

, Katif, and

Neve Dekalim Neve Dekalim (, ) was an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. Comprising a part of Gush Katif, it was founded in 1983, shortly after Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula to fulfill the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. It served as a regional ...

answered the call. Until that, living conditions had been rudimentary. The singles had been living in trailers, electricity was provided by a generator that did not work all day because of the high cost of operation. Water pressure was low and when the greenhouses were being irrigated, there was no water for personal use. Permanent homes were built, along with a nursery and a

mikveh A mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ...

Geography

The

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

Deir el-Balah Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah () is a city in the center of the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the administrative capital of the Deir al-Balah Governorate. It is located over south of Gaza City. The city had a population of 75,132 in 2017. The ci ...

lied on the northern edge of the settlement. A natural pond was located in the heart of the settlement, water from which was used to irrigate a small greenhouse farm. A small army outpost with a few dozen Israeli soldiers guarded the location by manning the main gate, a watchtower that stood above the settlement, and a

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

that stood watch during the night.

Culture

The 20 or so families lived in either houses or trailers and were composed of a mix of

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

and

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s who lived together in tight community with activities for all ages. The expression 'living together in harmony' was used often.

Unilateral disengagement

Residents of Tel Katifa were evicted on August 17, 2005, by the

Israeli Army The Israeli Ground Forces () are the Army, ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the GOC Army Headquarters, General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of the Gen ...

and

Israeli Police The Israel Police (; ) is the civilian police force of Israel. As with most other police forces in the world, its duties include crime fighting, traffic control, maintaining public safety, and counter-terrorism. It is under the jurisdiction o ...

who reported that 156 people were removed from the site. The houses were destroyed and the area was abandoned. {{Authority control Former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip Populated places established in 1992 Villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict 1992 establishments in the Israeli Civil Administration area