Katif (Israeli Settlement)

Katif was situated within Gush Katif, a bloc of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. In the geographic plan for Gush Katif, it was part of the third "finger," between Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, alongside Netzer Hazani, Kfar Darom, and Ganei Tal.[1]

Gush Katif as a whole comprised 18 settlements and had a combined population of about 7,800 in 2004.[1] A 1997 United Nations report counted about 5,000 settlers across 19 Gaza settlements and stated that most were clustered around the Gush Katif area.[2]

The broader settlement plan was intended partly to create a buffer zone following terrorist attacks originating in Gaza after the Six-Day War and to control communications between the Strip's densely populated Arab areas.[1]

Katif formed part of a modern settlement enterprise set against a longer history of Jewish life in the Gaza region. Jewish communities existed there in antiquity and the medieval period, Jews lived in Gaza until the violence of 1929, and Kfar Darom was established in 1946 before its defenders withdrew during the War of Independence. Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip resumed after the Six-Day War, with the first communities established by Labor-led governments in the early 1970s.[3]

Contemporary accounts date the arrival of Katif's Shalhevet group to the summer of 1985, on Tu B'Av. The group comprised ten families and several single people drawn from Bnei Akiva, hesder yeshivas, the Nahal program, and military service.[4][5] An Israeli government publication stated that the founders underwent agricultural training at nearby Moshav Bnei Darom before establishing the community.[6]

The moshav opened its membership to community intake in 1992.[5]

Katif had 338 residents in 2002.[1] Population tables show an increase from 296 residents in 1999 to 317 in 2000, 329 in 2001, 338 in 2002, and 369 in 2003.[7]

By July and August 2005, government and Ynet profiles reported more than 60 families and about 330 residents, including about 220 children and teenagers.[6][4] Globes reported 61 families on August 16, with three having departed by that date.[8] Its account of the evacuation later described 46 families at the site and about 200 people who were not permanent residents, while separately stating that around 60 permanent families had lived there and 16 had left during the disengagement process.[9]

Katif's economy rested primarily on agriculture and local industry. Its main farming branches included nursery plants, dairy production, and organic vegetables.[1] A July 2005 government profile stated that the moshav operated a dairy, manufactured fabrics and hothouse equipment, and grew vegetables for export in its own hothouses.[6]

A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs article described the Katif dairy as the second largest in Israel. It reported that Gush Katif's greenhouse exports were worth $200 million annually, representing 15 percent of Israel's agricultural exports; these export figures concerned the bloc as a whole rather than Katif alone.[10] Katif's combination of agriculture and local industry was also identified in a Jewish Virtual Library history of the Gaza settlements.[3]

The community's religious character reflected its founders' ties to Bnei Akiva, hesder yeshivas, Nahal, and military service.[4][5]

Katif's residents founded the Katif Yeshiva for Marine and Desert Environmental Studies. Its curriculum combined religious education with environmental, maritime, and desert studies, giving the community a specialized educational institution connected to its physical setting.[6][4]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his intention to evacuate the Gaza settlements in 2003.[1] The revised disengagement plan classified "the towns and villages of Gush Katif" as Group C and stated that Israel would evacuate the Gaza Strip, including "all existing Israeli towns and villages," and redeploy outside it.[11] Katif was listed by name in a government publication describing the communities covered by the plan.[6]

As the August 2005 deadline approached, Ynet reported that only a few Katif families had signed agreements with the government's Sela directorate and that the others intended to oppose evacuation without violence. A tent and temporary-shelter encampment housed dozens of teenagers and single young people who had arrived at Katif.[4] On August 16, Globes listed Katif among four communities expected to present difficulties at the start of forced evacuation.[8]

Katif was evacuated on Sunday, August 21, 2005, along with Atzmona, Shalev, and three northern Gaza settlements.[9] About 300 police officers and soldiers entered at approximately 10 a.m. Earlier, dozens of teenagers and young people had piled hay, vehicle tires, and construction timber near the gate and placed concrete barriers, bins, and a dumpster beyond it. The hay was ignited as the force entered, and the fire burned for about half an hour before a military bulldozer extinguished it with sand.[9]

Despite those incidents, the evacuation proceeded with predominantly passive resistance. Many families agreed to pack their belongings with assistance from soldiers, and Katif's rabbis urged the young people not to use violence. Police district commander Uri Bar-Lev credited the local leaders and rabbis with responsible leadership and a largely passive line of opposition.[9]

Residents asked to hold a farewell ceremony at the site where Tali Hatuel and her four daughters had been murdered. David Hatuel, their husband and father, had left before the evacuation, saying that removal from the place where his family was killed was too painful for him.[9]

The broader disengagement operation ran from August 15 to September 11, 2005, and removed close to 9,000 people from the Jewish communities of the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.[12] All Gush Katif settlements were subsequently dismantled.[1] A retrospective study of 2,962 Gush Katif evacuees reported increased diabetes and hypertension among men aged 45–64 and questionnaire findings of increased depression and overweight during the five years following the evacuation, compared with the general Israeli population.[13]

Sources give conflicting establishment dates for Katif. Israeli government and Ynet profiles date the Shalhevet community to 1985,[6][4] and a contemporaneous Globes profile also gives 1985.[5] By contrast, a Jewish Virtual Library population table lists 1978. Encyclopedia.com's historical narrative describes an earlier Nahal settlement called Katif, its renaming as Netzer Hazani, and a new moshav called Katif in 1978, while the same page's individual Katif entry gives 1985.[1][7] The sources do not reconcile these accounts.

Family and resident totals also vary by report and date, including distinctions between permanent residents and people who came to Katif before the evacuation.[4][9] Broader accounts of the disengagement similarly differ: an INSS account lists 21 Jewish Gaza communities as evacuated, while a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs article refers to 22 evacuated settlements being razed. The sources do not explain whether they used different definitions or counting methods.[12][14]

The disengagement remains politically contested. Some evacuees and opponents refer to it as an "expulsion" rather than an evacuation or withdrawal, terminology reflecting the grievance of those removed from their homes.[15]