Nahal Oz (kibbutz)


Nahal Oz is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northwestern part of the Negev desert close to the border with the Gaza Strip and near the development towns of Sderot and Netivot, it is under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In, it had a population of. A nearby IDF military base is known by the same name.
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History

The kibbutz was founded in 1951 as the country's first Nahal settlement. It was initially referred to as Nahlayim Mul Aza. In 1953 it became a civilian community. Most members came from Israeli cities and were close to Mapai.
When an Israeli reporter from Haaretz visited the kibbutz in 1955, he described the residents, most of them native born Israelis, as utterly fearless despite the constant shelling by Egyptians across the border, who called the kibbutz "the village of death."

Murder of Ro'i Rothberg and Moshe Dayan's eulogy

In April 1956, the kibbutz security officer Ro'i Rothberg was ambushed and killed by infiltrators from Gaza. Rutenberg's funeral was attended by Moshe Dayan, then Chief of Staff, who gave a widely acclaimed eulogy which called upon Israel to search its soul and probe the national mindset.

1997–2023 events

Privatization of the kibbutz began in 1997.
On 22 August 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, four-year-old resident of the kibbutz Daniel Tregerman was killed by mortar fire from the Gaza Strip.

2023 Hamas-led attack

In October 2023, dozens of Hamas militants entered Nahal Oz during the October 7 attacks. The militants attacked the nearby military post, killing 41 members of the Golani Brigade and 20 soldiers in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps. The militants deployed a flammable substance against the soldiers at the base, which also released toxic gases that caused suffocation. Some of the militants also broke into the kibbutz, killing 15 civilians and taking 8 others hostage. The kibbutz was held by Hamas for 12 hours, until the Israel Defense Forces killed the militants and took back control of the kibbutz. Hamas also took hostage a family of five, both parents and their three children, and retreated with them to Gaza. The kidnapping was livestreamed by militants using the mother's phone, alerting the rest of the family of the kidnapping. Arson and vandalism carried out by Hamas militants left a significant number of homes destroyed or uninhabitable, leading to the displacement of the residents of the kibbutz.

Economy

The kibbutz grows carrots, cotton and wheat, and operates a dairy with 600 cows. Past sources of income include a metal works factory that produced industrial-sized ratchet bits and a high tech firm, OzVision, that links security cameras to the Web.
In February 2023, a team from Israel's National Infrastructure Committee came to inspect the area in preparation for building a solar panel field along the border.

Notable residents