Kfar Darom

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Kfar Darom, meaning “South Village,” was a kibbutz and Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip’s Gush Katif bloc. It began in 1930 when Tuvia Miller bought 250 dunams (about 25 hectares or 60 acres) of land to grow fruit on the site of an ancient Jewish settlement. In 1946 he sold the land to the Jewish National Fund. A community was started in October 1946 by Hapoel HaMizrachi’s kibbutz movement as part of early settlement efforts. In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, after heavy fighting, the community was abandoned following a siege by the Egyptian army.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied Gaza. In 1970, a Nahal military outpost was established at the site, and in 1989 it was turned into a civilian community through government decisions. The village had an elementary school, a religious study center for married men, and the Torah and Land Institute, which studied agricultural laws. The Garden of Commandments Museum illustrated commandments related to the Land of Israel. The site of the old kibbutz is now the Palestinian town of Wadi as-Salqa. By 2005, around 60 families (about 330 people) lived there, working in farming and other jobs, with a central packing center for Gaza produce.