For the first time since the October 7 massacre, Zikim Beach is fully open to the public for the summer swimming season. After suffering severe damage during Hamas’s attack, the beach underwent an extensive restoration and is once again welcoming Israelis back to its shores.
The restoration of the coastline and its infrastructure was completed at a cost of approximately ₪20 million (~$5.5 million), funded by the Tekuma Administration, the Tourism Ministry and the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. The project included new restrooms and changing facilities, renovated access roads and parking areas, energy-efficient lighting and extensive accessibility improvements stretching from the parking lot to shaded areas and public facilities.
But for residents of the region, reopening Zikim is about far more than rebuilding infrastructure.
The beach became one of the sites associated with the horrors of October 7. Israelis returning to its sand now symbolize something very different: confronting the devastation while choosing to continue living, rebuilding and developing the communities surrounding Gaza.
“The return of the people of Israel to Zikim Beach is a victory of the spirit and our strongest Zionist answer,” Hof Ashkelon Regional Council head Itamar Revivo said. “In every step and every grain of sand at Zikim is woven the unrelenting pain for the fallen and the heroic murdered whom we lost on that Black Saturday—beachgoers, fishermen and members of the security forces,” he continued.
“Reopening the beach is our moral obligation to commemorate them. We do not forget for a moment those we lost, and in the same breath, we choose life, rehabilitation and growth. The arrival of visitors here this summer is the biggest embrace our community could receive.”
This summer, thousands of Israelis are once again returning to Zikim Beach. A place that witnessed one of the darkest moments in the region’s history is once again becoming what it was meant to be—a place for families, nature and life.
Hamas brought death to Zikim on October 7. Israel returned with life.