This is where it all begins

Came to the ground on August 16, 1949, at the foot of Sheikh Nuran Hill ("Sheikh's tomb from the 19th century, sacred to Muslims, which was in the War of Independence an important Egyptian outpost captured in Operation Assaf)

The founders: The members of the "Magan" nucleus of the Shohat in Romania who came up as recruits in 1947, were captured by the British and deported to Cyprus when the state was established, returned to Israel. They were trained for kibbutz life by Yad Mordechai and Gat and then they came here.

In the first period there was no water line (they brought it in a tanker), no electricity line (there was a generator) and no roads. There was one telephone, one radio, and dirt roads to Urim in the east and Saad in the north. In the beginning, livelihood was on a field, a vegetable garden, a farm, and later also sheep, ducklings, irrigation

Over the years, the seeds of completion came from the Shochat movement in Israel and from around the world. 4 youth members were also educated in the kibbutz. Beginning in the 1970s, kibbutz members also began to be absorbed. The percentage of kibbutz members who remain in the kibbutz (on average over the years) - one third. Many of them brought spouses. Today there are already grandchildren who are kibbutz members.Population today: about 250 members and candidates, about 100 children and about 40 residents.

Main branches of livelihood:

"Magan Eco Energy" plant (under its new name): solar collectors, heat exchangers, chlorinators. About eighty million NIS a year in sales, good profitability. About 90 employees.

Field crops - about twenty thousand dunams, 20 employees. Mainly potatoes and peanuts, as well as wheat, radish, carrot and jojoba.

Refat HaNegev - in collaboration with Barry and Golotov. The breeding is here and the milking is at the borders.

Foreign workers - about sixty members (including teachers) who contribute their salaries to the kibbutz

Auxiliary and service industries: education, food, meeting, laundry and clothes, garage, locksmith, maintenance, carpentry, building.

A good standard of living, an arranged pension, a savings fund, the size of a standard permanent apartment - 90 square meters (possibility of private expansion). Cultural life (and holidays) and society. Excellent nearby schools.

The kibbutz is run as a cooperative kibbutz, with no connection between work and salary and with equal budgets for everyone (according to family status). Many budgets are privatized at the disposal of the member and a "live and let live" approach.

Dealing with being part of the "Gaza enclave" in recent years.