Alumim colony

Alumim is a religious kibbutz located in the northwest of the Negev Desert in southern occupied Palestine, near the Gaza Strip. The kibbutz was established in 1966 by members of Bnei Akiva, and in 2022, the number of settlers was approximately 531. During the Palestinian resistance attack against the Israeli occupation in 2023, a battle took place at the kibbutz, where 19 settlers were killed and 8 others were taken captive.

Kibbutz Alumim was founded in 1966 as a border settlement with Egypt by members of Bnei Akiva from the Nahal Garin settlement. Its lands had been affiliated with the religious kibbutz movement since the 1940s and were previously cultivated by Kibbutz Beit Yitzhak, which was relocated following its destruction during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Over the years, other Nahal groups joined the kibbutz, along with groups of immigrants from the global Bnei Akiva movement. The largest group of immigrants came from the United Kingdom. Today, Alumim has about 140 members, approximately 70 families, with around 20% of the membership being immigrants from the UK.

Children of Kibbutz Alumim study up to the ninth grade at the Da’at Regional School in Kibbutz Sa’ad.

The Battle of Alumim was an attack that took place on October 7, 2023, as part of the surprise offensive against the Israeli occupation by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. During the attack, approximately 30 Hamas fighters infiltrated Alumim. Nineteen settlers were killed and eight were taken captive. Two brothers from the city of Beersheba, who were serving in the Israeli army, took the initiative to join the defense of the kibbutz during the fighting and were killed. The battle lasted six hours until Israeli Defense Forces arrived and evacuated the kibbutz of the militants.

Sources:
Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, Hebrew sources were used: the settlement’s Hebrew website / the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.