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Location: Menachem Begin St., and there is also an entrance from Yoseftal St.
The affair between the Gaza Strip and Sderot began long before the Kassam rockets. In the 1950s, when the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian rule, the residents of Israel suffered in general, and particularly in the south, from the fedayeen. The fedayeen were guerrilla terror cells established by Egypt, which were in control in Gaza during that period.
They were sent to the Israeli home front to spread fear. From 1951 to 1955, they penetrated the borders with Egypt from the south and with Syria from the north, murdering approximately 1000 Israelis in the process. These terrorists ambushed motor vehicles, planted mines on the roads, attacked agricultural settlements, and burglarized and looted primarily in residential settlements adjacent to the border, such as Sderot.
On Monday, November 5, 1956, at dawn, five young men from Sderot departed for work – Haim Avitan, 25; Itzhak Tourjeman, 23; and Yitzchak Avraham, Albert Cohen, and Natan Agiv, all 17 years-old. Their destination was the nearby Kibbutz Ibim orchard. They made their way there in a carriage harnessed to a mare. Several hours later, the horse returned – alone. The family members of the fivesome became concerned and understood that something had happened. They went to search for them and soon found their bodies in the fields of Kibbutz Or HaNer on the route to the orchard. The fedayeen had placed an explosive mine in the fields which caused their deaths.
Gan Hahamisha was established in the center of Sderot in their memory. This park is loved by the city’s residents and by visitors, with its grass lawns extending over 2.5 acres. On Israel’s Independence Day, Yom Haatzmaut, and during summer vacation time, major happenings and performances are held in the park. Gan Hahamisha commemorates another painful and forgotten period when the residents of Sderot were subject to the force of their neighbors beyond the border.
How to get there: On Waze, look for Gan Hahamisha, Sderot.