Ofakim, still marked by the trauma of October 7, is undergoing an ambitious transformation, with cranes, new towers and major infrastructure projects reshaping the city. In a tour of the city, Mayor Itzik Danino said Ofakim, which lost 48 residents that day, is trying to turn pain into growth and has become, in his words, “the pearl of the western Negev.”
Danino, who has led the city since 2013 and is now serving his third term, described the chaos of the Hamas attack. He said Home Front Command had not warned the city when the sirens began at dawn, the shelters were closed, and he first realized terrorists were in Ofakim when his nephew called to say he saw them near neighbors’ homes. Danino said he phoned then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant twice, warning that gunmen were moving house to house, and received the same reply both times, “I am taking care of it.” By then, 35 people had already been killed, all in the Mishor HaGefen neighborhood.
The city’s resistance became a central part of its story. Fifty-eight residents came out on their own, confronted the attackers and stopped the killing, with 13 of them killed in the fighting. Ten terrorists were killed, and five others took Rachel and David Adari hostage for 19 hours before police elite YAMAM units stormed the home and killed all five in 10 seconds. A memorial is now being built near the Adari house and the Heroes Synagogue, which bears the names of Ofakim’s dead and includes iron sculptures of police officers.
Danino said the city was finally cleared of terrorists two days after the attack, after thousands of soldiers searched street by street. He said he had to insist that residents remain in the city, following advice from psychologists, and that city employees were hired on formal contracts, not as temporary volunteers. Ofakim is now described by him as Israel’s fastest-growing city, with about 5,000 residents still dealing with disability after the attack and recovery expected to take another two to four years.
The municipality has introduced a new security plan with five official entry and exit points and 2,200 cameras, while also promoting a long-term vision of becoming Israel’s new center. Danino said Ofakim is preparing to absorb another 18,000 residents, reaching 80,000, and aims to become a digital city and the country’s agrotech hub. He said the city has already built an innovation center, agrotech labs, set aside 300 dunams for experimental agriculture, expanded housing sales, and stopped negative migration. New residents are mainly young families, many of them academics or engineers.
