Gush Katif

Gush Katif (Hebrew: גוש קטיף, lit. 'Harvest Bloc') was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza Strip. In August 2005, the Israel Defense Forces removed the 8,600 Israeli residents from their homes after a decision from the Cabinet of Israel. The communities were demolished as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement from Gaza.

Gush Katif was on the southwestern edge of the Gaza Strip, bordered on the southwest by Rafah and the Egyptian border, on the east by Khan Yunis, on the northeast by Deir el-Balah, and on the west and northwest by the Mediterranean Sea. A narrow, one kilometer strip of land populated by Bedouins known as al-Mawasi lay along the Mediterranean coast. Most of Gush Katif was on sand dunes that separate the coastal plain from the sea along much of the southeastern Mediterranean.

Two roads served Gush Katif: Road 230, which runs from the southwest along the sea from the Egyptian border at Rafiah Yam through Kfar Yam to Tel Katifa on the bloc's northern border, where it entered Palestinian-controlled territory, and Road 240, which also runs parallel to the sea approximately one kilometre inland, and upon which most of the settlements and traffic were located. Road 240's southern end turned south to reach Morag and continued to Sufah and the Shalom bloc of villages south of the Gaza Strip, while its northern end turned east to the Kissufim Crossing, and served as the main route into Gush Katif. These roads were forbidden to Palestinian Arab drivers.

While Kfar Darom and Netzarim were originally accessed along the main road to Gaza City (known as "Tencher Road"), Israeli and Palestinian traffic was separated after the failure of the Oslo Accords and the Second Intifada. Netzarim was isolated as an enclave accessed only through the Karni crossing and the Sa'ad junction and in the latter years, only by IDF armored vehicles. In 2002, a bridge was built for Road 240 over the Tencher road to physically separate the two arteries and allow unobstructed travel for both Palestinian and Israeli traffic.

About 8,600 residents lived in Gush Katif, many of them Orthodox Religious Zionist Jews, though many non-observant and secular Jews also lived there. The three northernmost communities, Nisanit, Dugit and Rafiah Yam, were secular. The area also included several hundred Muslim families, mostly al-Mawasi Bedouins, who while technically Palestinian residents had freedom of movement within Israeli areas due to peaceful relations. Contrary reports have noted the severity of the restriction of movement for Palestinian residents.

The following table contains the population statistics for former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, which were evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan.

Population statistic sources

Settlement date sources