Netivot

Netivot combines the functions of an immigrant-founded development town, a regional shopping center, and a destination for religious pilgrimage.[1][3] The tomb of the Baba Sali is among Israel’s major pilgrimage sites, connecting the city with Moroccan Jewish traditions of devotion to revered religious figures.[2] Its commercial development serves a wider western Negev population beyond the city itself.[3]

The city lies between Ofakim and Sderot, approximately 28 kilometers from Beersheba and 40 kilometers from Ashdod.[3] It is in the northwestern Negev’s Gerar region, with the regional councils of Sdot Negev, Merhavim, and Bnei Shimon in the surrounding area.[3][5] Its location is approximately 15 kilometers southeast of Gaza; a report published shortly after October 7, 2023, placed it 11 kilometers from the Gaza border.[1][6]

Netivot’s Hebrew name means “Roads” and derives from Proverbs 3:17.[1] The settlement was initially called Azzatah, meaning “Toward Gaza.”[1] An encyclopedia entry recorded its municipal area as 2.3 square miles, or approximately six square kilometers.[1]

Netivot was founded in 1956 as part of Israel’s regional settlement and population-dispersion policy.[1] Its precursor was the Azata Immigrant Camp in the Negev, where Asher Ohayon was appointed camp director in 1956; he subsequently served as the first head of the local council from 1956 to 1960.[7] Netivot, Ofakim, and Sderot were established at approximately the same time along the road between Ashkelon and Beersheba.[8]

The early settlement stood at the center of a rapidly expanding agricultural region.[1] Its development nevertheless faced difficulties, including competition from nearby Sderot and Ofakim and problems attracting educated veteran residents alongside new immigrants.[1] An account of the region identifies Netivot and Ofakim as immigrant towns based on various industries, within a northwestern Negev agricultural landscape largely dependent on irrigation.[9]

In 1973, a progressive group gained municipal power through its control of the local National Religious Party branch.[8] The group held power for a decade and brought considerable new development to Netivot, before a split in the party ended that period.[8] The town’s formation has also been the subject of a doctoral thesis, A. Cohen’s “The Formation of the Development Towns Sederot, Ofaqim and Netivot 1951–1965,” supervised by Z. Tzahor and Y. Gardus.[10]

Netivot received city status in 2000.[1] Municipal expansion was a major concern around that time: local leaders campaigned for development plans and additional land, including land from the neighboring Azata Regional Council sufficient to double the settlement’s area.[11] Plans reported in 2001 envisaged expansion to the north and the development of Netivot as a commercial and service center for western Negev residents.[11] A Beersheba metropolitan plan designated it a “secondary metropolis.”[11]

Exposure to rocket attacks became a significant municipal concern.[4] In 2014, a humanitarian grant was intended to help purchase emergency lighting, fans, and an emergency generator for public shelters after the town had endured numerous rocket and missile attacks.[4] Residents had only 15 seconds to reach shelter during Hamas attacks, underscoring the need for rapid access to protected spaces.[4]

On October 7, 2023, preparations and a prompt response by the municipal security unit, OFEK, thwarted an incursion by Nukhba Force terrorists traveling toward Netivot.[12] Rocket fire killed three people in an apartment building in the city.[6] Residents’ opportunities for temporary evacuation differed according to their financial resources, access to transportation, relatives elsewhere, and ability to work remotely.[6] Apartment-tower construction in new neighborhoods and continued urban growth were subsequently reported amid the conflict in the adjacent Gaza Strip.[12]

Netivot’s early immigrant population was overwhelmingly North African: 95% of the immigrants were from Tunisia and Morocco.[1] The population rose from 1,231 in 1957 to 4,830 in 1968.[1] Later immigration contributed to further growth, from approximately 13,600 residents in the mid-1990s to 21,800 in 2002.[1] The same demographic account recorded 43% of residents as younger than 14.[1] A separate population table listed 23,654 inhabitants on December 31, 2004.[5]

By 2010, the population was approximately 27,500, while a 2021 report citing Interior Ministry data placed it at about 43,000.[3] That report recorded growth of 51% between 2008 and 2020 and characterized annual population growth as exceeding 4%.[3] Combined December 2022 demographic data placed the population at 45,530, including 21,895 ultra-Orthodox residents, or 48%.[13] Netivot was among the Israeli cities experiencing a rapid intake of ultra-Orthodox residents.[13]

An official account based on a November 18, 2025 visit put the population at approximately 60,000, one-third of whom were newcomers.[12] It reported that around 60% of residents were aged 40 or younger, including approximately 23,000 children and teenagers, and that new educational institutions were being established annually in response to population growth.[12] These dated figures sit alongside a substantially lower estimate of 35,000 published in October 2023 and should be retained with their reporting dates rather than treated as a single continuous statistical series.[6][12]

Religious identity has been an important feature of public life: an account of local government characterized the population during the period it examined as overwhelmingly religious.[8] In 2001, however, Mayor Yehiel Zohar disputed the image of Netivot as primarily ultra-Orthodox and chiefly dependent on visitors to religious tombs, emphasizing that its location also attracted diverse residents, including people from surrounding moshavim.[11]

Immigration from the former Soviet Union also formed part of the city’s social history.[14] A 2013 Jewish Review of Books review judged immigrant absorption in a town such as Netivot to have worked well, while raising questions about the next generation’s relationship with Israeli society and other immigrant groups.[14]

By 2021, Netivot had more than 100,000 square meters of commercial space and over 400 local businesses, with a sixth large shopping mall under construction.[3] Estimated monthly purchasing power was approximately NIS 40 million among city residents and NIS 220 million across the wider region.[3] The Globus Center was a locally initiated project built around 2010, followed by the opening of the Zim Urban complex in 2011.[3] Workshops and factories along Ba’alei ha-Melakha Street were later converted into commercial space.[3]

Earlier economic descriptions identified local commerce and industry as the principal sources of employment, alongside commuting to Beersheba, Ashkelon, and Kiryat Gat.[1] Income in that account was approximately half the national average.[1] A socioeconomic classification published in 2016, based on 2013 data, placed Netivot in Group 3 on a scale from Group 1, the lowest, to Group 10, the highest; the index combined education, standard of living, employment, and age.[15] In October 2023, average monthly pay was reported at about NIS 9,500, approximately 30% below the national figure.[6]

Industrial investment included Tara Dairy’s planned relocation from central Tel Aviv.[16] Approved in 2009 under a government program encouraging businesses in outlying areas, the project involved a planned investment of NIS 515 million, including NIS 103 million in financing from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.[16] New equipment was intended to expand and streamline production.[16]

Rail services from Netivot station began in February 2015, connecting the city with Tel Aviv through Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Yavne, Rishon LeZion, Bat Yam, and Holon.[17] At the opening, the service offered 20 trains in each direction on weekdays, with the journey from Tel Aviv taking just over an hour.[17] Trains serving Netivot and Sderot were specially reinforced against rockets fired from the nearby Gaza Strip.[17]

Housing construction has been another major element of economic growth.[3] In 2001, approximately 2,000 homes were in advanced construction stages, many under a “build your own home” program in Kiryat Menachem, while annual demand was estimated at 600–700 units.[11] Netivot led Israeli cities in new-home sales in the first quarter of 2019, with 382 of the 5,750 units sold nationwide, or 6.6%.[18] The high volume was attributed partly to the government’s Buyer Fixed Price Plan; 699 homes were sold in the city between October 2018 and March 2019.[18]

The pace of construction increased from approximately 150 units annually at the beginning of the 2010s to nearly 1,000 in 2020.[3] A 2025 report recorded about 5,400 housing starts during 2020–2024 and identified Netivot as one of the cities where ultra-Orthodox residents had found housing amid a regional shortage.[19] Plans reported in 2021 envisaged approximately 8,400 housing units through the middle of the decade and an eventual population of 100,000; these were planned developments and projections, not completed outcomes.[3] Planner Rina Degani described the intended role as providing services and employment for the western Negev rather than replacing Beersheba.[3]

Public-service development accompanied this expansion.[12] Mayor Zohar had announced plans for a regional hospital, although obtaining government funding remained a challenge.[12] A Jerusalem Post opinion article reported the inauguration of a Hadassah medical facility with an MRI scanner and described its opening as a transformative milestone for Netivot and the western Negev.[20] The same article reported that a Weizmann Institute science education center opened in 2021 and served approximately 700 students from Netivot and the surrounding Negev, more than half of them girls.[20]

The tomb of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, known as the Baba Sali, is Netivot’s principal pilgrimage destination.[1][2] A Moroccan-born sage and healer, he settled in Netivot and died in 1984.[1][2] His tomb subsequently became a major pilgrimage site, attracting hundreds of thousands of people annually.[1]

The site reflects traditions of devotion to saints brought to Israel by Moroccan Jewish immigrants.[2] Its annual hillula commemorates the anniversary of the Baba Sali’s death, and approximately 100,000 people gathered for the event in 2026.[2] Pilgrimage to the tomb is part of a broader pattern in which the burial places of North African rabbis became new religious centers in Israel, with participants expressing ethnic solidarity, shared experiences of emigration, and a common position in Israeli society.[21]

Annual gatherings have drawn thousands of Moroccan Jews as well as political and public figures from outside the Moroccan community.[22] For the gathering photographed on January 29, 1990, Housing Minister David Levy arranged road and parking facilities for visitors.[22] A 2008 feature described the tomb as particularly important to followers of North African descent and noted the sale of amulets and souvenirs to pilgrims.[23]

In November 2023, the National Planning and Building Commission approved for deposit plans for Hanon, a proposed settlement north of Road 25 between Netivot and Kibbutz Sa’ad.[24] The initial-stage proposal envisaged 500 housing units for 1,800 residents, approximately seven kilometers from the Gaza border.[24] Netivot Municipality opposed the project, arguing that it would harm the city socially and economically.[24] Its representative also called for reconsideration of planning assessments conducted before October 7 in light of the war.[24]