The "Gaza envelope" communities

The goal of the research is to examine the phenomenon of societal resilience in the Israeli settlements in the western Negev, near the border with Gaza. All these settlements are exposed to similar security challenges; the period under review saw three rounds of intense fighting between 2008 and 2014 and a "routine of terror incidents" in the intervals between them. Ten years is a long enough time to develop the perspective required to gauge public efficacy and the organizational capacity of the communities during and following emergency situations. It is also long enough to allow the local residents to evaluate the physical and psychological resources available to them that are needed for coping with long-term instability and stress. Based on our rigorous investigation, the research also offers analytical tools for assessing the extent to which a community can return to normative functioning in its core missions following a major disruption and forecasting how long that process might take.