View source for Netafim Border Crossing

{{short description|Border crossing between Israel and Egypt}}
{{Infobox Bridge
| bridge_name = Netafim Crossing
| native_name = {{lang|he|מעבר נטפים}}
| image = Maavarnetafim.JPG
| caption = View of the Netafim desert
| official_name = Netafim Crossing<br>מעבר נטפים
| crosses = [[Israel]] – [[Egypt]] Border
| maint = {{flagicon|ISR}} [[Israel Airports Authority]]
}}

The '''Netafim Border Crossing''' ({{lang-he|מעבר נטפים}}) was a border crossing between [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]]. It was located adjacent to [[Highway 12 (Israel)|Highway 12]], about {{nobr|12 km}} north of [[Eilat]], {{nobr|1 km}} north west of [[Ein Netafim]]. As of 2023, the only two working crossing points between [[Israel]] and [[Egypt]] are the [[Taba Border Crossing|Taba-Eilat Border Crossing]] and the [[Nitzana Border Crossing]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Israel Airports Authority - Crossings |url=https://www.iaa.gov.il/en/land-border-crossings/nizhana/about/}}</ref>

The border line is guarded accurately on both sides, on the Israeli side alongside [[Highway 12 (Israel)|Highway 12]] (one of the two accommodation roads to [[Eilat]]) by the [[Israel Border Police]] and on the Egyptian side from some army positions.

The border crossing is in the [[Israel National Trail]]'s proximity but not actually on the route. Nevertheless, many wanderers who have lost their way arrive at the border crossing to drink some water.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

==History==
Today's border crossing sits at the eastern end of a mountain pass used by important roads throughout history. The medieval [[hajj]] road to [[Mecca]] coming from Egypt and the [[Maghreb]] passed through here, meeting with the one coming from [[Syria]] a little to the southeast, at the town of [[Aqaba|Aylah]] – modern-day Aqaba, the twin city of Eilat. The road coming from Egypt had to cross through a mountain pass in Sinai named either 'Aqabat Aylah ("the ascent of 'Aylah), Naqb al-'Aqabah ("the mountain pass of Aqaba") or Ras an-Naqb ("the head/[[promontory]] of the mountain pass").<ref name=CIAP>{{cite book |chapter='Aqabah (Ailah) |title=Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies/Handbuch Der Orientalistik |author=Moshe Sharon |author-link=Moshe Sharon |year=1997 |location=Leiden & Boston |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |pages=89–90 |isbn=9789004108332 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1rSzWgHMjoC&q=Arabic+%22naqb%22&pg=PA90 |quote=In fact, there are two mountain passes through which the road of Aylah has to cross. The western one crosses the mountain ridge to the west of the gulf, and through it passes the main road from Egypt, which cuts through the whole width of Sinai, coming from Cairo via Suez. This mountain pass is also called 'Aqabat Aylah, or as it is better known, "Naqb al-'Aqabah" or "Ras an-Naqb." |accessdate=1 May 2015 }}</ref> Netafim/Ras an-Naqb keeps its strategic importance until today. The Egyptian military has a base at what is commonly spelled in Egypt as Ras El Naqb and an airport is also located there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.flightstats.com/v2/airport-conditions/RAF|title=RAF – Ras An Naqb Airport Current Weather and Airport Delay Conditions|website=FlightStats}}</ref>

It should not be confused with other sites of the same name, some not far away, such as the Jordanian Ras an-Naqb in the desert between [[Petra]] and Aqaba, and the Ras an-Naqb village north of [[Beersheba]] [[Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe|fought over]] during [[World War I]].

At the end of the 1948–49 [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|Arab–Israeli War]], on the last day of [[Operation Uvda]] on March 10, 1949, the [[Negev Brigade]] captured the abandoned position of the Jordanian [[Arab Legion]] in Ras an-Naqb ([[Hebrew]] ראס אל-נקב), exactly where the Netafim border crossing is located today.

During the [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956, Ras al-Naqb was again one of the strategic positions important for gaining control of the [[Sinai Peninsula]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.iaa.gov.il/Rashat/en-US/Rashot Israel Airport Authority]

{{Israel border crossings}}

{{coord|29|35|56|N|34|52|04|E|type:city_scale:10000|display=title}}

[[Category:Egypt–Israel border crossings]]
[[Category:Eilat]]


{{Israel-geo-stub}}
{{Egypt-geo-stub}}