Netu'a

Netu'a stands in the hills of the Galilee, approximately 1.5 kilometers from the Lebanon border.[2] The moshav is set among pine and fir trees, with Lebanon visible beyond a hill.[6] Its development has combined border settlement, agricultural livelihoods and guest accommodation.[3][4]

An expansion plan advanced in February 2025 proposed adding approximately 86 housing units northwest of the existing moshav.[2] At that time, Netu'a had approximately 200 approved housing units.[2] The Northern District Planning and Building Committee approved the plan for deposit, rather than reporting the proposed homes as already built.[2] Planned plots ranged from 300 to 500 square meters, with building rights of 160 to 240 square meters.[2] A team led by Yael Oko of Tzamir Architects prepared the plan in cooperation with the Ma'ale Yosef Regional Council, with support and funding from the Ministry of Construction and Housing.[2]

The Central Galilee development project began in 1963, initiated by the Israeli government, the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency settlement department.[3] It established a village bloc near the Lebanese border comprising Biranit, Shetulah, Netu'ah and Zarit, alongside development work in the Yodefat–Mount Ḥazon area.[3]

Netu'a was founded in 1966.[1] It was grouped with Shtula and Zarit in a program that established northern border moshavim in late 1966 and during 1967 to strengthen Jewish settlement in the Galilee near Lebanon.[7] Its founders came from other Galilee moshavim, and most were of Kurdish origin.[4] In its 2004 listing, the community was affiliated with Tenu'at ha-Moshavim and listed within the Ma'aleh ha-Galil regional council area.[1]

Netu'a and neighboring hilltop communities along the Lebanon border were evacuated in October 2023.[5] In November, Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at Netu'a, with further attacks on the moshav and nearby Shtula following.[5] On November 13, an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon toward the Netu'a area injured two people, one moderately and one lightly; Israeli troops responded with artillery fire at the source.[8] Terrorists fired toward Netu'a a second time that Monday, although no separate impact or damage in the moshav was specified.[8]

By March 2024, families were dispersed around Israel, while members of the local security squad and some farmers remained in Netu'a.[4] Security squad members used a rented luxury villa as a command post and shared sleeping quarters, taking shifts at several positions around the moshav around the clock.[4] The villa had previously been rented for parties and events.[4] After October 7, the community also had a bunker and control center where residents took turns watching over the moshav.[9]

In early June 2024, Hezbollah rocket and explosive-drone attacks started fires in northern Israel, and forested areas in Netu'a, Hanita and Baram were among the targets.[10] On August 11, 2024, an anti-tank missile struck a house in Netu'a without causing casualties.[11] A later Hezbollah rocket strike on a chicken farm killed hundreds of chickens but injured no people; the remaining workers tried to move surviving birds to other facilities.[9]

The evacuation separated some households for extended periods.[9] Yoav Cohen, the moshav’s head and head of security, continued working in Netu'a while his family lived in hotel rooms in Eilat for a year and a half, driving for hours each week to visit them.[9] A January 2024 account of the family described his call-up for reserve duty with the local security squad and his wife Mitel’s departure with their 11 children, first to Eilat and later to temporary accommodation in northern Israel.[12] In a later account, Cohen and his family intended to remain in Netu'a despite the risk of renewed fighting.[9]

Netu'a had 256 residents on December 31, 2004.[1] In 2022, the moshav comprised approximately 80 families.[6] Before the October 2023 evacuation, it was home to about 85 families, or approximately 300 people, and was described in March 2024 as mostly religious.[4] A February 2025 account placed its population at approximately 350.[2]

During the evacuation, many families lived elsewhere in Israel, while the security squad and some farmers continued to stay in the moshav.[4] Some older farmers closed their farms during this period.[4]

Poultry farming has been a central livelihood in Netu'a, providing the main income for some households and the sole income for others.[6] The development of the poultry sector in the northern Galilee border communities included state-assigned laying-hen facilities and production quotas intended to provide families with a livelihood.[7] Regional production generally met ordinary demand, although seasonal peaks before Rosh Hashanah and Passover could require limited egg imports.[7]

In 2022, a modern poultry shed outside Netu'a housed 60,000 hens, with eggs carried by conveyor to a packing machine.[6] Yoav Cohen expressed concern that large farms could take over the sector and undermine the livelihoods of older, small-scale producers.[6] Agriculture in Netu'a also included fruit growing; peaches, apples and pears were among the crops grown in the surrounding northern border-moshav region.[6][4]

In the decades before the evacuation, residents supplemented poultry and fruit farming by operating upscale guest villas.[4] Yoav and Mitel Cohen opened guest accommodation in August 2023, but the moshav and its guest villas were quiet and empty after the evacuation.[12] Tourism remained part of Netu'a’s economy, although after October 7 the community shifted more toward agriculture, a change Cohen helped lead.[9]