Dovev

Dovev is a moshav in the Eastern Upper Galilee, affiliated with Tenu'at ha-Moshavim and administered by the Merom ha-Galil Regional Council.[1] It stands on a hilltop along the Old Northern Road, approximately 700 meters from the Lebanese border.[2] The Lebanese village of Yaroun lies on the opposite ridge, and the moshav's poultry farms are only several hundred metres from the boundary.[3]

The community was established in the 1950s by Jewish immigrants, including families from Morocco and Iran, who received land on which to grow fruit trees and raise laying hens.[3] This agricultural foundation continued to shape Dovev's economy and community life into the 21st century.

Dovev's position on the Lebanese frontier has placed it along a route repeatedly exposed to cross-border violence. In 1970, Palestinian terrorists ambushed an Egged school bus traveling from Moshav Avivim toward Dovev, killing eight children and four adults.[6] The attack occurred on the road to Dovev rather than inside the moshav, but demonstrated the danger faced by the surrounding border communities.

In July 2023, a video showed several armed Hezbollah operatives patrolling close to the border near Dovev. The IDF monitored the activity and said the operatives remained on the Lebanese side.[7] The report characterized the patrol as the week's most blatant border provocation.[7]

A reference table recorded Dovev's population as 430 on December 31, 2004.[1] In April 2024, during the wartime evacuation, it was described as a community of approximately 100 families. Most residents were in their 60s and were second- or third-generation descendants of the original settlers, while many of their adult children had moved elsewhere.[3]

A July 2025 account described the moshav as comprising approximately 120 families.[2] The differing figures reflect reports from different dates and the use of family counts rather than a formal population total.

Egg production has been Dovev's most dependable livelihood, while its small fruit orchards provide only modest income.[3] The poultry houses were initially located behind residents' homes. About three decades before 2024, they were relocated to the edge of the moshav to create more space, placing the new complex on a slope facing Lebanese villages.[3]

After the Second Lebanon War, the Israeli government invested in developing Dovev as a tourism village and financed renovations to guesthouses. Visitors nevertheless remained reluctant to vacation so close to the border, even before the later conflict.[3] The surrounding landscape is particularly scenic during the spring fruit-tree blossom.[3]

An observation point developed in 2006 overlooks Mount Hermon and the Lebanese village of Yaroun.[2] Residents Marcel Vaknin, Etti Peretz, Moshe Amran, and Malka Yakouti later organized an effort to restore the overgrown site. Their plans included guided tours, cooking classes, and workshops about the Moroccan and Kurdish Jewish cultures represented among Dovev's founding families. They also considered incorporating the local chicken coops into the community's tourism program.[2]

Hezbollah began launching anti-tank missiles into northern Israel on October 8, 2023, followed by Israeli military responses and daily hostilities along the border.[4] Dovev was among 28 communities included in an IDF and Defense Ministry plan announced on October 16 to evacuate residents living within two kilometers of Lebanon.[8] Approximately 100 Dovev families were subsequently housed at the Leonardo Club Hotel in Tiberias.[3]

On November 12, 2023, Hezbollah fired anti-tank guided missiles toward Dovev. Initial reporting described 14 civilians as wounded, including one critically; the following day, the Israel Electric Corporation announced that one of its employees injured in the attack had died.[9][10] The victims included company employees working with security forces to repair power lines damaged by earlier fire from Lebanon.[11] Shalom Aboudi, 56, a Tiberias resident who had worked for the corporation for approximately 34 years, was killed and was survived by his wife and two children.[11] The IDF attacked the firing cell in Lebanon in response.[11]

Hezbollah claimed responsibility and said the attack was carried out in support of Gaza. It asserted that the targets were soldiers installing surveillance equipment, while the Israel Electric Corporation identified the victims as civilian employees repairing power lines.[10][11]

On December 21, 2023, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon wounded two civilians in Dovev, a man and a woman. Both were admitted to Ziv Medical Center in Safed with light injuries, and the IDF struck the sources of launches toward Dovev and nearby Avivim.[12] On December 26, a guided missile struck a building in Dovev. The IDF identified the launch area as near a mosque in Yaroun and responded with artillery fire and attacks on Hezbollah infrastructure.[13]

During the conflict, Hezbollah fire struck several communal buildings in Dovev, including the youth center and synagogue.[2] The poultry complex sustained four anti-tank missile hits over six months. Workers used an improvised opening in the rear fence because the main entrance was exposed and had previously been targeted, while the poultry houses lacked warning systems and fortifications.[3] Security coordinator Menachem Yakuti described hearing a powerful explosion half an hour before the Sabbath began and said earlier fire had generally fallen around, rather than inside, the settlement.[5]

One 62-year-old poultry farmer continued traveling from Tiberias to Dovev each day. He spent approximately two to two and a half hours collecting eggs alone and maintaining the flock, in addition to the journey between Tiberias and the moshav.[3]

Following the November 27, 2024 ceasefire, residents began returning. Israeli authorities permitted residents of northern border communities to return from March 1, 2025, and Dovev resident Carmela Keren Yakuti described coming home after more than 16 months away.[14] By July 2025, all but two of Dovev's families had returned.[2] A March 2026 report said that resident Shlomi Yakuti's chicken coop had been hit three times during the war and rebuilt after each strike; he recalled December 2023 as a period of catastrophic, unceasing fire.[15]

Reports about the November 12, 2023 attack reflected different stages of the casualty count. The Jerusalem Post initially recorded 14 civilians wounded, with no confirmed death in its Dovev tally, while reporting the incident as it unfolded.[9] The following day, reporting confirmed that Israel Electric Corporation employee Shalom Aboudi had died from the attack.[10][11]

A later Ynet chronology dated the fatal attack to December 12, 2023.[8] Contemporaneous reports published on November 12 and 13, however, place it on November 12, and this article follows that date.[9][11] Accounts of the targets also differed: Hezbollah said it struck soldiers installing surveillance equipment, whereas the Israel Electric Corporation identified the victims as employees repairing power lines.[10][11]