Grandma's army

  My family has had quite a long history with the Gaza Strip. My husband and I joined a newly formed moshav in the Negev, seven kms. from Gaza in 1960, where my four children grew up. My oldest son, who is a farmer, and his four married children, plus his youngest unmarried daughter, still live there with their growing families In 1949, Arab terrorists, known as Fedayeen were trained and equipped by Egyptian Intelligence to engage in hostile action on the border, and infiltrate Israel - to commit acts of sabotage and murder. The Fedayeen operated mainly from bases in Jordan, so that Jordan would bear the brunt of Israel’s retaliation, which inevitably followed. The terrorist attacks violated the armistice agreement provision that prohibited the initiation of hostilities by paramilitary forces – nevertheless, it was Israel that was condemned by the UN Security Council for its counter-attacks!   Since then, terrorism from Gaza has “rocketed”. We have experienced it all: su...

Jews and their Israelite ancestors had lived in Gaza since Biblical times. An historic Jewish community existed in Gaza City prior to its expulsion by the British, for safety reasons (after many had been massacred), during the infamous 1929 riots by the city’s Arabs.   Land for the village of Kfar Darom (in the Gaza Strip) was purchased in the 1930’s and settled in 1946. It was evacuated following an Egyptian siege in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. In1968, Yigal Allon presented an initiative for the founding of two paramilitary  settlements in the centre of the Gaza Strip. He viewed the breaking of the continuity between the northern and southern Arab settlements as vital to Israel's security in the area - which had been captured the previous year in the 1967 Six-Day War. In 1970, Kfar Darom was re-established as the first of many Israeli villages in the area. Allon's idea was ultimately designed with five key areas slated for Israeli presence along the length of the ...