...thence to the stronghold of Beersheba.

Converging Allied movements seize Beersheba on October 31, and...

Falkenhayn had attempted a counterstroke at Beersheba, but the collapse of the Turkish center necessitates a general retreat.

The Zionist land-redemption agencies establish approximately fifty new localities in previously unsettled rural areas by erecting, overnight, settlements that include a stockade and a watchtower, to circumvent the 1940 regulations under the White Paper policy.

A crucial step in securing the inclusion of the Negev in the Jewish state is the formation of eleven such settlements in this area on October 15, 1946 (and another seven in 1947).

Gamal Abdel Nasser, who commands an army unit in Palestine and is wounded in the chest, is dismayed by the inefficiency and lack of preparation of the army.

In the battle for the Negev Desert in October 1948, Nasser and his unit are trapped at Falluja, near
Beersheba.

The unit holds out and is eventually able to counterattack.

This event assumes great importance for Nasser, who sees it as a symbol of his country's determination to free Egypt from all forms of oppression, internal and external.

A final offensive in October carries the Israelis to the Gulf of Aqaba and into ...

The third area includes much of the Negev Desert, the region traversed by the previously apolitical Bedouins.

Arab attacks have killed hundreds of Israelis, four-fifths of whom were civilian, during the period from 1949 to 1953.

Several bus passengers are killed when Palestinian terrorists cross into the Negev desert and ambush the vehicle on March 17, 1954.

A school bus hits a land mine in Israel's Negev desert on March 18, 1968, killing two adults and injuring twenty-eight children.