JNS.org/ May 29, 2025
About two months into the Israel Defense Forces’ invasion into the Gaza Strip as part of “Operation Swords of Iron” in retaliation of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Aviel Tucker, a former resident of Gush Katif, Gaza, got a call from his son, Dan, a Golani fighter who had been serving there since the start of the IDF ground offensive.
“I’m coming home,” Dan informed him.
“‘When are you coming?” Aviel asked him. “We’ll prepare for your arrival.”
“No,” his son said. “I’m coming … home.”
At that point, Aviel knew exactly what he meant. “Home” was Netzer Hazani, an agricultural settlement in Gush Katif where Aviel was born and raised, and which they were forced to leave on Aug. 15, 2005, as part of Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, which saw the IDF uproot and destroy 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip.
The “original” Netzer Hazani, which consisted of 65 religious-Zionist families, exists today largely as a humanitarian zone sprawling with tents to house Arab refugees from the nearby towns of Khan Yunis and Dir el’Balach. In an earlier round of fighting, a friend from the army had sent Aviel a photo of the town, asking if he could recognize his hothouses.
Unlike their homes (and contrary to the belief that every greenhouse was destroyed after the Jews left Gaza), some of the Jews’ hothouses still stand, thanks in part to international funds that had purchased them for the benefit of Arab locals who couldn’t repeat the success of the Jewish residents. Gush Katif agriculture had been a multimillion-dollar industry, with about 400 farms selling their famous bug-free lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapples, flowers and more.
Aviel proceeded to give Dan detailed instructions toward their former community. Dan was only 3 when they were forced to leave; he had just had his upsherin, the ritual first haircut for observant Jewish boys, so Dan’s memories were sparse. Nevertheless, the longing and love for Gush Katif have been transferred to the second and third generation of the evictees. Aviel directed him to an Arab flour mill that stood at the former intersection of Netzer Hazani.
JNS’s interview with Aviel took place at the home of his mother, Anita Tucker, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., who made aliyah back in 1969. At 79 years old, this Gush Katif farmer has become the public face of her community. Having volunteered for the job of spokesperson, she continues to give interviews and lead groups through her displaced village, which has rebuilt its synagogue, schools and social clubs named after Netzer Hazani’s fallen in central Israel. They’ve even replanted olive trees salvaged from the settlements with the help of the Jewish National Fund.
“I can take my grandkids to Germany and Poland, but I can’t take them a few kilometers to see where I lived for 30 years,” Anita said in front of kitchen blinds specifically designed with the Gush Katif shore adorned with the resilient “Lily of the Beach” (chavatzelet hahof), whose seeds had produced a wax protective layer to save them from destruction by the high tide. Pictures of Gush Katif, as well as Jerusalem, are omnipresent, as if Anita’s seeking to envelop herself in “the Gush,” as they often call the region.
Dan, her grandson, went on with his unit to capture the Hamas parliament in Gaza City, where he held up the Israeli flag with his comrades. Out of Aviel’s six sons and one daughter, two are in active duty; one was injured fighting in Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7. Whether or not Anita’s grandchildren—and now, great-grandchildren—will visit her adopted hometown as more than soldiers in her lifetime is a question that burns within the entire family.
Read the rest in JNS.org: https://www.jns.org/20-years-since-disengagement-how-former-gush-katif-residents-are-re-engaging-with-gaza/
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