Wadi Gaza and Besor Stream
Wadi Gaza (
.Wadi Gaza is a wadi (river valley) that divides the northern and southern ends of the Gaza Strip, its major tributary is Besor Steam. In 2022 work began to rehabilitate Wadi Gaza Nature Reserve.[1][2][3]
History
In the
Around the year 390, a group of monks from
Between 1951 and 1954, the Yeruham Dam was built on one of the tributaries of the HaBesor Stream.[citation needed]
In October 2023, as part of the
Wadi Gaza Nature Reserve
The Wadi Gaza Nature Reserve was declared a
The Gaza section of the
In 2022 rehabilitation began to turn Wadi Gaza back into a Nature Reserve.[12][1][13]
Geography
The stream begins at Mount Boker (near Sde Boker), and spills into the Mediterranean Sea near Al-Zahra in the Gaza Strip. Further upstream it was marked as Wadi esh-Shallaleh on the 1878 Survey of Western Palestine map. The area has several important archaeological sites.[citation needed]
The stream is the largest in the northern Negev, and together with its largest tributaries, the Nahal Gerar, and the Beersheba stream, reaches as far east into the desert as Sde Boker, Yeruham, Dimona, and Arad/Tel Arad.[4]
The source of Besor River lies at Mount Boker, near Sde Boker and the educational center Midreshet Ben-Gurion. From there it flows northwest towards the town of Ashalim, where it meets Nahal Be'er Hayil.[citation needed]
From there it flows north towards the ancient town of Haluza (Al-Khalasa). Then it continues northwest until it meets Beersheba River a little to the east from the town of Tze'elim.[citation needed]
Near the village of Re'im, Nahal Besor meets the Nahal Gerar river, which is its biggest tributary.[citation needed]
One of the tributaries of Besor River reaches kibbutz Urim. Tributaries from south to north: HaRo'e Stream, Boker Stream, Mesora Stream, Zalzal Stream, Revivim Stream, Atadim Stream, Beersheba Stream, Assaf Stream, Amar Stream, Sahaf Stream, and Wadi Abu Katrun.[citation needed]
Finally, Bezor Stream flows across the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, and into the Mediterranean sea.[citation needed]
Archaeology
Nahal Besor has shown evidence of
Finds of pottery and flints were studied by Ann Roshwalb who found evidence of both Egyptian and late Neolithic occupations.[17]
Several important Bronze Age archaeological sites are in this area. Among them are fr:Tel Gamma, and Tell el-Farah (South). A smaller site of Qubur al-Walaydah is located between them.[18]
Tell Jemmeh/Tel Gamma
Tell Jemmeh (Arabic) or Tel Gamma (תל גמה; Hebrew) is located on the west side of Nahal Besor, near Re'im. The huge site (close to 50,000 square metres (5.0 ha; 12 acres) in size) shows a continuous occupation from the Late Bronze Age ("Canaanite period") until the Byzantine era. The first archaeological excavations mistakenly identified it as biblical Gerar.[citation needed]
The site was continuously settled only between the Middle Bronze IIB (c. 1700–1550 BCE) and the Persian period (c. 530–330 BC). During the Iron I (c. 1200–1000 BE) the site was part of the
Tel Gamma has been identified by researchers as the Canaanite city of Yurzah (ירזה), that was cited on the lists of Pharaoh Thutmose III (15th century BCE), as well as in Amarna letters.[19]
Yurzah is again mentioned in an inscription of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (7th century BCE) as one of the cities that rose up against the Assyrian domination and whose queen was deported to Nineveh.[citation needed]
The site also features Assyrian style buildings, ancient iron furnaces, a Persian period grain storage shed, and several tombs from the Byzantine period.[citation needed]
Tell el-Farah (South)
Tell el-Farah (South), sometimes referred to as Tell Fara,
Petrie first identified the site as Beth-Pelet (Joshua 15:27) and published the excavation reports under the names Beth-Pelet I - II. It has been linked by
The tel is 37 hectares (91 acres) in size and 15 metres (49 ft) high and was an important fortified site in the Middle Bronze Age. The earliest major settlement that has been uncovered to date is from the Middle Bronze Age II, lasting from ca. 1650 to 1550 BCE.[citation needed]
It was controlled by Egypt in the Late Bronze Age and inhabited by Philistines into the Iron Age. A hematite seal in the shape of the head of a bull was found and identified by Flinders Petrie to originate from Syria, it showed a bull attacking a lion beneath a scorpion.[24]
Nahal Besor has been suggested to be the Brook of Egypt.[25][26]
Various ostraca have been recovered from around the site with Aramaic inscriptions analysed and translated by Joseph Naveh.[27]
Flooding
Besor Stream is subject to annual flooding following heavy rains. Some Palestinians have claimed that Israel is at fault for the flooding, due to the opening of one or more dams opened upstream,[28] and in 2015, AFP posted a video showing flooding, entitled "Gaza village floods after Israel opens dam gates."[29] Several days later, AFP published a story acknowledging that "no such dam exists in Israel that could control the flow of water into Gaza, according to a team of AFP reporters on the ground as well as interviews with Israeli and international experts."[28]
See also
- Ein HaBesor
- Nahal Hevron
- Tell es-Sakan, an important Early Bronze Age site at the mouth of the river
- Tourism in Israel
References
- ^ a b "Pollution clean-up aims to create Gaza's first nature reserve". 12 February 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
- ^ "From sewage dump to nature reserve, UN hopes to save Gaza Valley". Retrieved 4 April 2024.
- ^ "Restoring Wadi Gaza after years of neglect". The Electronic Intifada. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ a b Vilnai, Ze'ev (1976). "Besor (Stream)". Ariel Encyclopedia (in Hebrew). Vol. 1. Tel Aviv, Israel: Am Oved. pp. 1065–1066.
- ISBN 9789047408444. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ISBN 9789004138681. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ "Gaza evacuation: Why getting people out in less than 24 hours is 'impossible'". Sky News. 15 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
- ^ MedWetCoast project. "MANAGEMENT PLAN- WADI GAZA" (PDF).
- ^ Integrated Water Resources Management and Security in the Middle East, p. 109. Clive Lipchin; Springer, 2007
- ^ "Gaza's Valley of Slow Death | إعلاميون من أجل صحافة استقصائية عربية (أريج)" (in Arabic). Arij.net. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
- ^ Mohammed, Omer (16 July 2014). "Gaza: Israel bombs water and sewage systems". theecologist.org. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ^ "From sewage dump to nature reserve, UN hopes to save Gaza Valley". Middle East Monitor. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
- ^ "Restoring Wadi Gaza after years of neglect". The Electronic Intifada. 13 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2024.
- ISBN 978-0-8264-6996-0. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-306-46262-7. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem; British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (1990). Levant. British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem [and] British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-86054-460-9. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ Lehmann, Gunnar; Rosen, Steven A.; Berlejung, Angelika; Neumeier, Bat-Ami; Niemann, Hermann M. "Excavations at Qubur al-Walaydah, 2007–2009". academia.edu.
- ^ .
- ^ William Matthew Flinders Petrie; Olga Tufnell (1930). Beth-Pelet 1: Tell Fara. British School of Archaeology in Egypt.
- ISBN 978-3-927120-88-4. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ "Tell el-Far'ah, South -- Israel Excavation Project Website". Farahsouth.cgu.edu. Retrieved 12 January 2016.
- ISBN 978-90-5356-503-2. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-567-08591-7. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ Nadav Na'aman, The Brook of Egypt and Assyrian Policy on the Egyptian Border. Tel Aviv 6 (1979), pp. 68-90
- ^ Mario Liverani (1995). Neo-Assyrian geography, p. 111. Università di Roma, Dipartimento di scienze storiche, archeologiche e antropologiche dell'Antichità. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
- ^ a b Ward, Hazel (27 February 2015). "Gaza floods: dispelling the myth about Israeli 'dams'". Yahoo! News. AFP. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
- Times of Israel. Retrieved 9 August 2016.