Park Eshkol

Park Eshkol Israel (Eshkol National Park) is the largest park in the northern Negev, covering thousands of dunams of open fields, eucalyptus groves, and seasonal streams near the Gaza border. The park, named after Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, has been a center of recreation and nature for the communities of the Gaza Envelope for decades, and it continues to serve that role despite the challenges the region has faced. For the families of the surrounding kibbutzim and moshavim, Park Eshkol is not just a park but a gathering place, a space where daily life carries on against a backdrop that the rest of the world associates only with headlines.

Green Space on the Border

The park contains picnic areas, cycling trails, hiking paths, and the seasonal Besor Stream, which fills with water during the winter rains and attracts migratory birds. The landscape is open and flat, typical of the northern Negev, with fields of wildflowers in spring (anemones, in particular, carpet the fields in red). The park is popular with families from Sderot and the surrounding kibbutzim and moshavim. The Besor Stream, known in the Bible as Nahal Besor (the brook where David’s exhausted soldiers rested during the pursuit of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 30), runs through the park and creates a green corridor that supports a surprising variety of wildlife, including foxes, jackals, and dozens of bird species. In the winter months, the stream pools attract storks, cranes, and other migrants traveling the Great Rift Valley flyway between Africa and Europe.

Resilience Under Fire

Park Eshkol sits within rocket range of Gaza, and the park’s shelters are as much a part of its infrastructure as its picnic tables. The decision of local families to continue using the park, to hold barbecues and birthday parties in a place where a siren can sound at any moment, is a statement of defiance and normalcy that defines the character of the Gaza Envelope communities. Since 2001, when rockets first began falling on the region, the communities around Park Eshkol have lived with a reality that few outsiders fully understand. The park’s shelters, painted in bright colors and decorated by local children, are a visible reminder of that reality, but so are the families who spread their blankets on the grass every weekend, the cyclists who ride the trails, and the volunteers who maintain the grounds.

Nature and History Along the Besor

The Besor Stream area within the park holds archaeological interest as well. The ancient route connecting Gaza to Beer Sheva passed through this area, and remains of way stations and agricultural settlements from the Roman and Byzantine periods have been found nearby. The landscape itself tells a story of water management in a dry climate: the seasonal floods that fill the stream were channeled and stored by ancient inhabitants, and the eucalyptus groves that shade the park today were planted during the British Mandate period as part of efforts to drain marshland and stabilize the soil. Walking along the stream bed, visitors see layers of human interaction with this landscape stretching back thousands of years.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

Park Eshkol provides green trails and open space in the Otef Aza region. Hoshen Tours pairs it with the innovation of the Salad Trail, the ancient mosaics at the Maon Synagogue, the Steel Division Memorial, and the memorial at the Black Arrow Memorial.