| Mefalsim | |
| Hebname: | מפלסים |
| Foundation: | 1949 |
| Founded By: | Argentine and Uruguayan Jews |
| Country: | Israel |
| District: | south |
| Council: | Sha'ar HaNegev |
| Affiliation: | Kibbutz Movement |
| Pushpin Map: | Israel northwest negev#Israel |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 250 |
| Coordinates: | 31.5019°N 34.5644°W |
Mefalsim (Hebrew: מְפַלְּסִים|lit=Road pavers) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located near the Gaza Strip and covering 11,000 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In it had a population of .
Mifalsim was established in 1949 by members of the Habonim Dror youth movement, most of them immigrants from Argentina and Uruguay.[1] It was named "Mefalsim" to honor the immigrants from Latin America who paved (lefales) the way for others to make aliyah.[1]
In 1966 the Argentine ambassador to Israel asked the kibbutz choir to perform Argentine folk music at the opening of the Argentine House in Jerusalem. This led to the establishment of Conjunto Mefalsim, a band that played Argentine and Latin American music, appearing on radio and television. The band also recorded several albums. [2]
In 2005 the kibbutz absorbed some of the evicted families after the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.[3] Since 2001 the kibbutz has been hit by dozens of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, with a few buildings destroyed, including the kindergarten in 2012.[4] In 2018 the village was the first location set ablaze by a fire balloon.[5]
In October 2023 Mefalsim was attacked by Hamas in the initial attack of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. The kibbutz's security team battled the attackers for hours, holding them off until IDF reinforcements arrived and cleared away additional Hamas gunmen approaching the kibbutz. Several members of the kibbutz were injured but there were no fatalities inside the community, although at least three civilians were killed outside the kibbutz gates. There are memorials to the married couple and their friend who were murdered when a grenade was thrown into their shelter.[6]
In 2017 Kibbutz Mefalsim had 430 acres of citrus and almond groves. Joining other farmers in the region, fruit farmers from Mefalsim called on Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman to grant entry permits to hundreds of Gazans to work in their orchards.[7] Mefalsim-Kfar Aza is a farming cooperative that grows roots vegetables such as potatoes and carrots over an area of 14,000 dunams (roughly 3,500 acres).[8]
In 2022 the Shibolet Group acquired an area of 22 dunams of kibbutz land for the establishment of a logistics center for industrial companies.[9]
An IDF memorial site, the Black Arrow Memorial is located on the outskirts of Kibbutz Mefalsim.[10]
In 2017 a salvage excavation was conducted at Tel ʽIrit, southwest of Kibbutz Mefalsim, by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Tel ʽIrit is the site of a pottery workshop dated to the late Byzantine period (end of the sixth–beginning of seventh centuries CE).[11]