Netiv HaAsara

Netiv HaAsara combines an agricultural community’s history of collective rebuilding with the security challenges of life immediately beside Gaza.[1][3] Its residents rebuilt the moshav after evacuation from Sinai, expanded it to accommodate their children, and later developed emergency arrangements to sustain the community through fighting and displacement.[1][3] The community’s history therefore encompasses both the consequences of Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt and the repeated disruption of civilian life along the Gaza border.[1][3]

The moshav lies in the northwestern Negev, within Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, on Gaza’s northern boundary.[1] A 2007 geographic description placed it in the southern coastal plain, approximately seven kilometers south of Ashkelon.[6] A study of Gaza-border communities listed its distance from the border as 250 meters and classified it as a secular moshav.[1] Agriculture and domestic tourism continued to provide occupations after its relocation, while neighborhood expansion enabled a younger generation to establish homes there.[3]

The community’s border setting also shaped its physical surroundings: protective infrastructure included a wall, while residents used fortified rooms during rocket attacks.[1][2] The wall became a setting for public art, and emergency planning became an important part of local organization, linking everyday community life with preparation for periods when residents might remain sheltered or leave their homes.[1][2]

Netiv HaAsara was founded in 1973 as an agricultural moshav in the Yamit region of northern Sinai, territory Israel had captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.[7] Its founders were native-born Israelis from kibbutzim and moshavim in the Negev.[6] Initially called Minyan, the community adopted the name Netiv HaAsara after residents sought a different name.[3] Meaning “path of the ten,” the name commemorated ten soldiers killed in a Yas’ur helicopter crash in 1971.[3]

At its peak in Sinai, the moshav had approximately 150 residents, most employed in agriculture.[7] Residents cultivated flowers and vegetables, and their recollections emphasized the open landscape, beaches, and palm trees surrounding the settlement.[3] Founding member Eshel Margalit remembered the setting as “heaven,” while Aviva Fuld recalled growing crops before later working as a kindergarten teacher.[3] These recollections connect the original community’s agricultural livelihoods with the landscape and social relationships residents subsequently sought to preserve after relocation.[3]

By 1981, Netiv HaAsara was among the moshavim established in the Yamit region.[8] Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt required withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, bringing the community’s original settlement to an end.[3] Residents formally departed in April 1982; the broader evacuation of Sinai concluded with the last Israelis leaving on April 25 and all of Sinai passing into Egyptian hands by April 26.[8][3]

Some residents remembered the evacuation and demolition of their homes as traumatic.[3] One described watching bulldozers destroy the houses as an experience that bound the community together.[3] The loss of the original settlement was accompanied by efforts to preserve its social framework, rather than simply disperse its residents among unrelated destinations.[3]

Before leaving Sinai, residents collectively sought a replacement location and selected a site in the northwestern Negev beside Gaza.[6][3] Following evacuation, they stayed temporarily at a holiday resort in Ashkelon while construction of the new moshav continued.[3] Some former residents settled elsewhere, but many remained committed to rebuilding their community together.[3] The present settlement dates to 1982.[1][6]

The original core consisted of 40 families, joined by approximately 30 families from ten other Sinai settlements.[6] Their arrival gave the reference to “ten” in the community’s name an additional local meaning, alongside its original commemoration of the helicopter-crash victims.[6] A poem by resident David Shemenovitz, published in a 1982 newspaper article, described the rebuilt moshav as “a revival.”[9]

Ovadiah Keidar recalled the choice of the Gaza-border site as a Zionist settlement mission, saying: “We decided that we have to fulfill our Zionist mission and settle here up to the border with the Gaza Strip.”[3] His recollection also emphasized hopes for peace with Palestinians and an early period when residents worked together with Palestinians, before relations deteriorated and a fence and wall were built.[3] The moshav subsequently grew, with agriculture and domestic tourism providing livelihoods.[3]

Expansion in the 1990s was intended to accommodate the founders’ children and sustain another generation within the community.[3] After 2005, residents removed from Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip also joined Netiv HaAsara.[9] Following Operation Protective Edge, a further neighborhood of 71 housing units was built.[1] These successive additions extended a community originally reconstructed around families evacuated from Sinai.[1][3]

On August 25, 2007, two armed operatives crossed the security fence in heavy fog using a rope ladder and knotted rope, shot at a soldier near the Erez Crossing, and headed toward Netiv HaAsara.[10] Israeli forces killed them a few hundred meters from the shooting location; two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded.[10] The attackers wore IDF uniforms and carried weapons, hand grenades, and explosive devices.[10] The Popular Resistance Committees, Fatah, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed joint responsibility, and a Popular Resistance Committees spokesman said the intended destination was Netiv HaAsara.[10]

Repeated fighting with Gaza affected residents’ decisions about sheltering and leaving their homes.[1] During the first two, shorter rounds examined in a comparative study of six Gaza-border communities, Netiv HaAsara experienced sporadic rocket attacks, residents commonly sheltered in fortified rooms, and some families left independently.[1] Operation Protective Edge imposed greater demands because of its duration, producing wider evacuation and additional responsibilities for local leaders and the Community Emergency and Resilience Team, or CERT.[1]

The CERT became a principal means of maintaining contact with residents, including those who had left.[1] Its work included digital updates, situation surveys, lists of possible refuge locations, and WhatsApp checks to establish who remained in the moshav and what assistance people needed.[1] Compared with a kibbutz, Netiv HaAsara had a less collective organizational structure, making these emergency communication arrangements particularly important to sustaining contact.[1]

During Protective Edge, local leadership and the CERT had to assist both those remaining at home and those dispersed elsewhere.[1] Children who stayed required attention while school was closed.[1] Interviewed residents also described the discovery of offensive tunnels near the moshav as undermining their sense that their houses and fortified rooms provided safety.[1] Across the three rounds studied, residents commonly stayed with relatives or friends or in guesthouses rather than leaving through an official moshav evacuation.[1]

Relocation was especially difficult for children and elderly residents, and families described the strain of separating children from familiar homes, friends, and community life.[1] After Protective Edge, the moshav developed an emergency plan addressing evacuation logistics, potential host communities, protective measures, and procedures for returning.[1] Residents viewed the preparations as confidence-building, and local self-reliance became increasingly important.[1] One resident summarized the collective requirement: “If we don’t decide and act together, it just won’t work.”[1] Another described the practical preparations by saying: “Next time we face an emergency, we have at hand all that we need here. Even an ambulance...”[1]

On October 7, 2023, three Hamas terrorists landed in separate parts of Netiv HaAsara using motorized paragliders shortly after 6:30 a.m. and attacked civilians.[11][4] A resident and his son fired at two of the airborne attackers, disrupting their landing, and notified the community’s security coordinator.[11] At 6:45 a.m., the coordinator instructed residents, including members of the local alert squad, to remain inside their homes; he later cited a lapse in judgment and fear that Israeli troops might mistake local defenders for attackers.[11]

The moshav had a 25-member armed alert squad, while four Golani soldiers were stationed in and around the community.[11] The military inquiry found that the Golani soldiers moved toward nearby greenhouses without functioning radio communications and that no force followed the required combat techniques.[11] Three alert-squad members defied the instruction to remain indoors and fought back.[11] Alon Keren killed one attacker at 7:07 a.m.; the two remaining attackers later exchanged fire with defenders and escaped toward Gaza.[11][4]

A later group of seven Palestinians entered the moshav around noon; three were driven away and four were captured.[4] Senior commanders organized a safe evacuation corridor during the afternoon, allowing residents to leave by evening.[11] The inquiry described failures in coordination, initiative, communications, and defensive positioning.[11]

Among the residents killed was firefighter Gil Taasa, 46, who sheltered with his sons Koren, 12, and Shay, eight.[12] After he ran out of ammunition, attackers threw a grenade into their shelter, and Taasa jumped on it to protect the boys.[12] Both sons survived with injuries and escaped to their mother’s nearby home; Shay subsequently lost sight in one eye because of shrapnel.[13] Koren recalled: “There’s no way he wasn’t afraid, but he decided to save us and he jumped on the grenade … there was an explosion, I saw smoke, suddenly we were covered in blood.”[13] Taasa’s 17-year-old son Or was killed separately at Zikim Beach.[12]

Bilha Inon, 75, and her husband Yakov, 78, were murdered in their home by Hamas terrorists.[14] At 7:30 a.m., Yakov messaged relatives that the couple had locked the house, were in their safe room, and could hear shooting and rockets.[14] By 7:45 a.m., the family could no longer contact them; the house was struck and caught fire within minutes.[14] Yakov’s remains were identified several weeks later, while Bilha remained listed as missing until the military confirmed her death in August 2024 following a complex examination and investigation.[14]

The Inons had five children and 11 grandchildren.[14] Yakov was an agronomist, while Bilha worked in early-childhood education and was an artist.[14] Their children remembered them as lifelong peace activists who believed in reaching out and building bridges, and their son Magen described their lives as happy, fulfilling, and influential in the lives of others.[14]

Resident Ifat Ben Shoshan and her family spent 11 hours in their protected room before IDF soldiers rescued them.[15] Her account begins with an unusual rocket barrage, followed by gunfire and updates about infiltrators in the community.[15] Her oral-history testimony also recounts the moshav’s establishment by Sinai evacuees and the growth of security concerns before the attack.[15] The Hebrew video was recorded on April 18, 2024, with Hebrew and English subtitles and a transcript.[15]

First-response-team member Yoel Keidar recalled receiving a warning from his son, who had witnessed infiltration at the Erez Crossing.[16] His sister hid in a cupboard, and his son remained hidden at the Erez terminal for ten hours before both were rescued.[16] Keidar said his own family eventually escaped under fire, and the testimony’s catalog record also describes the destruction of his farm.[16] The catalog metadata was generated with AI, and the underlying testimony is not available online.[16]

The moshav’s residents were evacuated after the attack.[3] Two weeks later, Aviva Fuld and her family were among those staying in a Tel Aviv hotel.[3] In interviews several weeks after the attack, longtime residents described renewed displacement and uncertainty over returning; one said that return would require deep change while also expressing determination to rebuild the community’s homes.[3]

By a 2025 report drawing on community spokespeople, just over 80 percent of Netiv HaAsara’s prewar residents had returned.[5] Nevertheless, 54 families and households were still living elsewhere.[5] Around a dozen new families and couples were renting homes in the moshav, adding newcomers to a community still experiencing the effects of evacuation.[5] On October 7, 2025, a rocket was launched from Gaza toward Netiv HaAsara while residents mourned those killed two years earlier.[17]

Netiv HaAsara’s recorded population rose from 635 in 2003 to 700 in 2008 and 805 in 2015.[1] The same community study listed 140 families and classified the moshav as secular.[1] An earlier archived description recorded 125 families, many originating among those evacuated from Sinai, but that figure belongs to a historical archive covering 2005–2016 rather than representing a present-day population total.[18]

Community spokespeople’s figures published in 2025 placed the population immediately before October 7, 2023, at 1,050 residents in 315 households.[5] The subsequent return of just over 80 percent, alongside households still displaced and new tenants arriving, describes a community whose residential composition continued to change after the attack.[5] Earlier expansion had included housing for founders’ children in the 1990s and a 71-unit neighborhood built after Operation Protective Edge.[1][3]

Agriculture has been central to Netiv HaAsara since its founding in Sinai, where most residents worked in farming and cultivated crops including flowers and vegetables.[7][3] Following relocation, agriculture remained an occupation for many residents, alongside domestic tourism.[3] Residents’ recollections of both settlements connect agricultural work with the desire to maintain a close community across generations.[3]

The “Netiv L’Shalom,” or “Path to Peace Wall,” project transformed part of the community’s protective infrastructure into participatory mosaic art.[2] Artist Tsameret Zamir invited visitors to add pieces of colorful broken tiles together with messages of hope, peace, and friendship.[2] The project developed against a background of frequent rocket assaults after the evacuation of Gush Katif and the construction of a protective wall that obscured residents’ horizon.[2] Residents could also see armed figures in Gaza on a nearby hill.[2] The mosaic brought visitors into a creative activity centered on that same wall.[2]

Local remembrance also includes the “Garden of Twenty,” described during the October 2024 anniversary of the attack.[19] The circular memorial garden was surrounded by 20 olive trees and featured a 50-meter flagpole carrying a flag measuring 200 square meters.[19] It was built in memory of residents killed on October 7.[19]

Infrastructure work for a neighborhood intended for residents’ children uncovered ancient settlement remains on a dune on Netiv HaAsara’s eastern side, overlooking Beit Hanoun.[20] Excavations reported in 2014 revealed storage areas, houses, courtyards, cooking ovens, pottery, stone implements, and dozens of jars used for oil and wine.[20] Finds also included a fortified tower constructed from kurkar stone and fired mud bricks, together with bronze and iron arrowheads and a spearhead.[20]

The excavating archaeologist interpreted the remains as a fortified road station on the ancient Via Maris during the Persian period, linking Gaza and Ashkelon, each approximately ten kilometers away in her account.[20] She proposed that the site was violently destroyed during Alexander the Great’s fourth-century BCE conquests and was not occupied again until the Byzantine period, roughly a thousand years later.[20] Construction briefly stopped following the discovery, and the moshav and antiquities authorities sought an arrangement to preserve at least part of the remains.[20]

Published casualty totals use different scopes. One inquiry account reported 17 civilians killed in the moshav, while another counted 20 residents overall—17 inside and three outside—and included three local alert-squad members among the dead.[11][4] The broader account named Tal Keren and Or Te’asseh, killed at Zikim Beach, and Haimi Benaim, killed near the moshav.[4] Other publications give 19 or 22 deaths; the available accounts do not fully reconcile these totals.[13][21]

Residents interviewed about Protective Edge criticized the absence of an official government evacuation, saying families paid their own accommodation costs and sometimes returned as expenses mounted.[1] Separately, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs argues that Palestinians demanded Netiv HaAsara’s annexation to Gaza during post-2005 border discussions, but that the issue lost traction after Hamas ousted Fatah from Gaza.[22]