Mavki'im

Mavki'im lies in the Southern Coastal Plain, in the Ashkelon region.[1] Its settlement classification is a collective moshav, or moshav shittufi, and its recorded movement affiliation is Tenu'at ha-Moshavim.[5][1] The locality is also listed under the spelling Mavqi'im and has the official locality code 573.[5]

Mavki'im was established in 1949 by Hungarian Jews and demobilized IDF soldiers who had survived the Holocaust.[2] Following the 2005 disengagement, 24 evacuated families from Gush Katif joined the moshav, most of them from Pe’at Sadeh.[2]

In 2005, the Southern District Planning and Building Commission approved an expansion plan initiated by the Ministry of Construction and Housing’s Rural Construction Administration to provide plots for additional residents from the Gaza Strip.[6] The plan included changes to the road network and the redesignation of agricultural land for housing, public buildings, and sports facilities.[6] Approval took less than six months from the plan’s initiation.[6] By 2008, construction had begun at Mavki'im and Bat Hadar, the only two of 22 designated relocation sites nationwide where building had started at that point.[7]

After the October 7, 2023, attack, Mavki'im was among the displaced communities that still lacked a longer-term housing solution in December 2023.[4] A January 2024 return scheme included Mavki'im among communities described as four to seven kilometers from the Gaza Strip, with voluntary returns and grants of 200 shekels per adult and 100 shekels per child planned.[8]

In March 2025, Mavki'im was described as one of four moshavim just beyond the seven-kilometer line in discussions about reconstruction assistance.[9] The government had initially included it for Tekuma aid, subsequently removed it, and then agreed to reinstate it, with eligibility subject to government determination.[9]

Mavki'im had 225 inhabitants on December 31, 2004, before the arrival of families evacuated from Gush Katif.[1][2] Its reported population was 320 in 2006.[2] The official population total for 2020 was 478, while a rounded figure based on 2021 population data put the community at approximately 500 residents.[3][4]

The arrival of the Gush Katif families was accompanied by new homes and fields and the establishment of a synagogue, which the moshav had not previously had.[2] Longtime resident Shoshana Kraus described the change by saying, “We felt the community came alive again.”[2] In 2009, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem donated NIS 130,000 toward renovating the community center as a venue for community events.[2] The regional council was to supply furnishings and other amenities, while a new neighborhood of modern homes was also under construction.[2]

Agriculture included an operation run by Mavki'im resident Dror Balaban, growing field crops and orchards—including avocado and lychee—across 10,000 dunams.[10] On October 7, 2023, Balaban first arranged for his Thai employees to be moved from their unprotected accommodation on farmland between Mavki'im and Ge'a to his home. Later that day, he traveled with workers back toward the agricultural area to retrieve tractors and return the employees to their quarters.[10] During that later journey, security personnel mistakenly identified the pickup as carrying terrorists and fired on it, critically injuring his employee Yanom.[10] At the time of a later interview, Balaban employed five Thai workers, and Yanom was the only one who had returned to work for him.[10]