Magen (Hebrew: מָגֵן, lit. 'Shield') is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the north-western Negev desert and covering 8,500 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In 2022, it had a population of 540.[1]
History
Kibbutz Magen in 1949Tomb of Sheikh Nuran
During World War I British forces established an air base at the village site after the withdrawal of the Turks.[2] The kibbutz was established by immigrants from Romania on 16 August 1949 on orchards that had belonged to the depopulated Palestinian hamlets of Ma'in Abu Sitta, Abu Tailakh and Abu Nuqeira, whose inhabitants had been driven out during Operation Assaf and forced to flee to the Gaza Strip. The area containing the villages was to be included as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine but was under Israeli control at the end of the war, with the government forbidding the Palestinian residents from returning.[3][4] The site also contains the remains of the maqam of Sheikh Nuran, either the site of the biblical town of Bethul (Joshua 19:4)[5][6] or the site of a fourth-century Byzantine monastery.[7]
During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Magen was one of the Israeli villages attacked, but its civil defense team fought off the attackers.[8] Israeli forces counterattacked with tanks the following day, successfully eliminating the remaining Hamas assailants in the vicinity of the kibbutz.[9]
The swimming pool at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, at which the Israeli 4×100 meters medley relay squad made the finals, was heated by solar panels manufactured by the kibbutz.[10]
Archaeology
A church complex consisting of four buildings was discovered at kibbutz Magen which sheds light on features of church construction during the Byzantine period.[11][12] It was a basilica dedicated to St. Elias.[12]Mosaics, inscriptions, glass, pottery and several coins were unearthed in these excavations.[11][12]
