Be’eri Colony
October 1, 2025
Nevatim Airbase
October 1, 2025
Urim is a settler community in the Negev desert, located near the Gaza Strip border and about 30 kilometers west of Beersheba. It was founded in 1948 on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-‘Imara in the Beersheba district. In 2019, its population was 502 settlers. The area is also known for hosting a major intelligence base.
The Urim military base, known as "Yarkon," is one of the most important sites for espionage and intelligence gathering for the Israeli occupation. It serves as the headquarters of Unit 8200, the most prominent branch of Israeli military intelligence, which is more widely known by its abbreviation "Aman." Although the unit’s official offices are based in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, the Urim base plays a central role in its operations.
Location:
The base is situated in the western Negev desert, in southern Palestine, midway between the Gaza Strip and Beersheba. It lies about two kilometers north of the Urim kibbutz and roughly 30 kilometers from Beersheba. Its position—on the contact zone between Asia and Africa—enables it to intercept communications and signals across a wide range.
The base was created in cooperation with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to intercept and monitor telephone calls and other communications around the world. It includes thirty antennas of various sizes, as well as a full array of satellite dishes, radars, and towers. It is under strict security protection, including high fences, electronic gates, electrified wires, and police dogs.
Personnel are selected for the base according to their skills and talents, and their identities — as well as the identities of their commanders (the Israeli army) — are not publicly disclosed.
Missions and Capabilities:
The missions of the "Urim" base include:
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Intercepting telephone calls and maritime communications.
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Monitoring and eavesdropping on personal computers.
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Tracking satellites and jamming them.
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Intercepting signals of all kinds, including e-mail messages.
Wide Scope:
The base was established to monitor satellites and later expanded to include maritime communications, then regional satellites. The information gathered by the base is sent to "Unit 8200," where it is analyzed, translated, and forwarded to the Mossad intelligence service and other Israeli military units.
Scope of Operations:
The reach of the "Urim" base extends over vast geographic areas, including the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Because of this wide coverage and the sheer volume of information it intercepts, the base is considered equal in capabilities to some of the largest espionage facilities in the world. Its intelligence work relies on monitoring, eavesdropping, imaging, jamming, and other related activities.
Personnel:
The base is often described as Israel’s “ears and eyes.” It remained secret until 2010, when information about it was leaked through Western media. Because of its importance, its existence was heavily concealed, to the extent that the identities of its commander and personnel were never revealed. Staff are recruited based on their talents and skills from an early age, and are regarded as some of the most capable minds in the Israeli army.
Claimed Achievements:
Officials connected to the "Urim" base claim that they were behind the cyberattack on Iranian nuclear facilities through the release of the "Stuxnet" virus, one of the most notorious computer worms. Such worms are self-replicating programs designed to destroy or steal data and cause severe damage to internet-connected systems. They spread rapidly, are difficult to eliminate, and are known for their ability to mutate, replicate, and evade detection.
They also claim to have intercepted a telephone call between Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jordanian King Hussein on the first day of the June 1967 war, as well as a call between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the group that hijacked the Italian ship Achille Lauro in 1995.
Failure during the "Al-Aqsa Flood":
Despite its capabilities and “many successes,” the base failed to detect the preparations of the al-Qassam Brigades for the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation on October 7, 2023. Resistance fighters entered the secret base, killed personnel inside, and seized highly sensitive intelligence files and equipment. They managed to identify the location of this hidden base among several nearby sites, approached through its unguarded back gate, carried out their mission, eliminated occupation forces, and withdrew successfully.