The Negev desert of southern Israel has been inhabited since the fourth millennium BCE, as suggested by findings unearthed at Tel Be'er Sheva, an archaeological site a few kilometers northeast of modern day Beersheba, the largest city the region.

The inhabitants live in caves, creating metal tools and raising cattle.

Here, at the southern edge of permanent cultivation in Palestine, there is a copper-working industry and evidence of an ivory-working industry, both proving the growth of a class of specialist artisans.

The tombs of the Hellenized Sidonian military settlers at Marisa in Edom (Idumaea) in southern Syria, the walls of which are decorated with frescoes of fine hunting scenes, indicate the embrace of Hellenic civilization by the non-Greek population in this age.

Khalid, operating in southern Iraq, is ordered to the aid of his fellow generals on the Syrian front, and on July 30, 634, the combined forces win a bloody victory against an imperial army at a place in southern Palestine that the sources call Ajnadain.

All of Palestine now lies open to the invaders.

Khalid is formally relieved (for unknown reasons) of high command by the new caliph, 'Umar, but he remains the effective leader of the forces facing Constantinople’s armies in Syria and Palestine.

…they have also pushed the frontier southward.

...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 ...