Tkuma () is a religious

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 north-west of

Netivot Netivot () is a city located in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel, located 8 miles (13 kilometers) southeast of Sderot and 19 miles (31 kilometers) northwest of Beersheba. In , it had a population of . Currently seeing r ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Sdot Negev Regional Council Sdot Negev Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Sdot Negev'', ''lit.'' Negev Fields Regional Council), formerly Azata Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Azata''), is a regional council (Israel), regional council in the northwestern Negev dese ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Tkuma was established as 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 ...

on the night of 5 and 6 October 1946 as one of the

11 points in the Negev 11 points in the Negev ( or , ''Achat-Esre HaNekudot'') refers to a Jewish Agency plan to establish eleven settlements in the Negev in 1946 prior to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel. History A plan to est ...

at a location around a mile from the present site. The first residents were Jewish immigrants from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, who survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, and the village's name reflects the resurrection of Israel. In 1949 the village moved to its present location near the site of the depopulated

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

village of

al-Muharraqa Al-Muharraqa () was a Palestinian Arab village in the Gaza Subdistrict, located east of Gaza city. The village laid on rolling terrain on the southern coastal plain of Palestine, on a bend in the ''wadi''. It had an elevation of and a total l ...

. Scholar Benny Morris documents that Tkuma is near the al-Muharraqa site, but writer Walid Khalidi says that Tkuma, although only 2 km west of the al-Muharraqa site, is on land which once belonged to the city of

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

. In the 1950s the moshav was joined by more immigrants from Eastern Europe and

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

. Located five kilometers from 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 ...

, the moshav suffered damage from

rockets A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

launched by

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

militants during 2000s and 2010s. The moshav is serviced by the Color Red alert system.

The Car Wall The car wall is a pile of burnt cars west of Tkuma, Israel, Tkuma in the Gaza Envelope, Gaza envelope, resembling the shape of a wall. Originally, this pile was created by evacuating the burnt cars from Route 232 and other places in the Gaza e ...

was erected just west of Tkuma, a pile of burnt cars as a memorial for the

Re'im music festival massacre On 7 October 2023, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political organization Hamas, initiated a October 7 attacks, sudden attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part ...

on 7 October 2023.

Economy

Since the 1990s

fish farming Fish farming or pisciculture involves commercial breeding of fish, most often for food, in fish tanks or artificial enclosures such as fish ponds. It is a particular type of aquaculture, which is the controlled cultivation and harvesting of ...

has been an important economic branch. The sale of fresh fish to banquet halls and restaurants in the northern Negev has provided income for several families.

Archaeology

In 1964, at Yizre'am, approximately one kilometre southwest of Tkuma, a clay stamp bearing a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

inscription was discovered, identifying it as belonging to "Silvanus".

References

External links

Tkuma
Negev Information Centre {{Sdot Negev Regional Council Moshavim Former kibbutzim Religious Israeli communities Populated places established in 1946 Gaza envelope Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1946 establishments in Mandatory Palestine