The Origins of the Israeli Communities Attacked on Oct. 7th, 2023

Why are a half dozen Israeli communities located so close to Gaza? These settlements were built in the 1940s and 1950s to expand the borders of the Zionist community, take control over more land and act as a first line of defense and a first line of attack.

Photo: The Front Position: The 11 Points in the Negev, 1976, Israel Film Service Collection.

Why are a half dozen Israeli communities located so close to Gaza?

Be’eri, Nirim, Re'im, Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz were not established so close to Gaza by accident. These settlements were built in the 1940s and 1950s to expand the borders of the Zionist community, take control over more land and act as a first line of defense and a first line of attack. Members of these communities also took part in expelling Palestinians from their homes in the Negev in 1948, massacring Palestinians who resisted subjugation and preventing their return. To use a phrase beloved by so many Zionists today, these communities were built as “human shields.” Tragically, on October 7th, 2023, they ended up serving the purpose for which they were created.

This is a brief history of the origins of the communities attacked by Palestinian militant groups on October 7th.

It was Sunday, October 6th, 1946. The Zionists had planned to establish 11 outposts in the southern desert, including Tkuma, Be’eri and Nirim. October 6th was chosen for the operation because it was Sunday, and the British authorities “loved to drink on the weekends,” as one Zionist operative recalled in a 1976 documentary produced about the affair. It was also the night after Yom Kippur. “The British would never expect the Jews to do such a thing the night after Yom Kippur,” Yaakov Sharett said, who also participated in the operation.

A few months early, the “Morrison–Grady Plan” had called for British control of the Southern Desert, known as the Naqb in Arabic and Negev in Hebrew (the plan called for partition in the rest of the country). Of course, the Zionists wanted Jewish control of the Southern Desert, not British control. 

So some 300 Zionist settlers set off under the cover of darkness on that fateful night with 300 trucks filled with fences, barracks, beds, food, water and, of course, weapons. They were divided into 11 groups of 30 settlers, each group responsible for occupying 1 of the 11 locations. Once occupied, they succeeded in rapidly building barracks, fences and a tower before the British authorities had a chance to intervene.

“Our goal was to conquer the Negev, so we had to settle [it],” Miriam Bonim said, who participated in the operation.

The British arrived soon after, “angry, screaming and cursing,” as one Zionist settler explained. “We told them to relax, have a drink. After the third box of alcohol, their tone started to change, and they became our friends.” 

That’s how, on Oct. 6th & 7th, 1946, Zionists established Be’eri and Nirim, two of the Israeli communities attacked on October 7th, 2023.

The 11 locations were chosen for their strategic (read: military) value, which is why they were provided ongoing support from Jewish National Fund. The were built to extend the borders of the Yishuv and serve as outposts for gathering intelligence about the Arabs in the area. Crops could only be grown if piped water was made available, which was costly to construct and defend. In other words, these settlements had no economic, commercial or agricultural value. They were built to serve as a front line for the war the Zionists knew they had to fight to establish a state in Palestine.

A few months after they were established, Be’eri and Nirim needed armed Palmach and Haganah fighters to fend off potential disturbances from the Arab population. In some cases, when Arab Bedouins from the area confronted the Zionist settlers, the British paid off the Arabs to keep the peace.

Relations between the settlers and the natives turned sour after the UN Partition Plan of November 1947. Palmach fighters moved into the border settlements, fortifying them and conscripting the settlers into military activities. “There was no difference between a civilian and a fighter,” according to one account.

In the 1976 documentary film, the Zionist participants interviewed proudly boasted of transforming these civilian centers into military bases and removing any distinctions between fighters and civilians. That’s how they themselves wanted to be remembered. Ironically, the use of human shields has now become Israel’s most popular accusation against Hamas.

During the 1948 War, these Zionist border settlements also helped expel the Arabs from the surrounding communities and carry out massacres against them in May 1948. The residents of the nearby Arab village of Huj signed a written agreement with the Zionist settlers that they be allowed to stay, “but they were driven out like all the other 247 villages of this area, mostly to Gaza.” Jewish fighters also drove out the Abu Yahiya clan, where the men were separated from the women. Some were shot and the rest were expelled. In Burayr, where there was resistance to Jewish domination, Zionist settlers from the border towns helped massacre between several dozen and a hundred Palestinians. They also expelled the inhabitants of the nearby villages of Sumsum, Najd, Muharraqa and Kaufakha.

Then, after Israel’s declaration of statehood in May 1948, Nirim fought an intense battle with Egyptian forces, in which 7 Israeli settler-fighters were killed, and even more wounded, resulting in the complete destruction of the border settlement. But Nirim’s civilian-soldiers held their ground and fought off the Egyptians.

The method of enmeshing civilians and soldiers together proved successful and was continued in the 1950s. Israel built 25 more population centers in the southern desert to fortify the front line, including Re'im, Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz, short for Nahalim Mul Aza, “Nahal soldiers across from Gaza.” These communities were also hit hard on October 7th, 2023.

Initially, the status of the Israeli “civilians” in these new border towns was “identical to reserve soldiers,” according to Israeli historian Yoav Gelber. These “civilian” communities were even organized in companies and platoons and integrated into the Israeli military’s command and control hierarchy. In Nahal ­Oz, for example, which had 70 adult residents in the 1950s, 16 were employed on guard duty every day. The Israeli military trained and equipped these civilians in classic civilian stuff like firing machine guns and shooting anti-tank rockets.

Throughout the 1950s, the border communities were subject to attacks from the Palestinian Fedayeen, including robberies, sabotage and acts of violence. This left the Gaza envelope settlements in a state of “terror and panic” for the better part of a decade. 

The task of these communities was to prevent the Palestinian refugees who had been forcibly “fenced in” behind the Gaza armistice lines from returning to their homes in the newly established State of Israel.

These communities also became bases for offensive military operations carried out in Gaza during Israel’s decade-long attempt to eradicate the Palestinian resistance from Gaza. Moshe Dayan, IDF Chief of Staff, used Kfar Aza as a military HQ in the February 1955 raid on Gaza known as Operation Black Arrow. It was the bloodiest raid carried out by Israel against Gaza since the 1948 war, resulting in 8 dead Israeli soldiers, 14 dead Egyptian soldiers and 2 dead Palestinians.

Prior to the 1955 raid, Egypt’s clear and consistent policy was actually to curb Palestinian incursions into Israel, but the Israeli aggression pushed Egypt to reverse course and allow Palestinian militants more freedom of action against Israeli targets. 

Fast forward to October 7th, 2023. Once again, Be’eri, Nirim, Re'im, Kfar Aza and Nahal Oz tragically served the purpose for which they were built, to act as a first line of defense for the State of Israel.

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