Hevel Lakhish is an area of south-central Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Part of the southern Shephelah

Shephelah

The Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level. The area is fertile, and a temperate...

, it is located between the Judean Mountains

Judean Mountains

The Judaean Mountains, ;, also Judaean Hills and Hebron Hills is a mountain range in Israel and the West Bank where Jerusalem and several other biblical cities are located. The mountains reach a height of 1,000 m.-Geography:...

 and the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 and is named after the Biblical

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 city of Lachish

Lachish

Lachish was an ancient Near East town located at the site of modern Tell ed-Duweir in the Shephelah, a region between Mount Hebron and the maritime plain of Philistia . The town was first mentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha-Lakiša...

.

Before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

, three kibbutz

Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

im were founded in the area - Gal On

Gal On

Gal On is a kibbutz in Israel's southern lowlands associated with the Hashomer Hatzair movement and its Kibbutz Artzi settlement organisation . Established as part of the 1946 11 points in the Negev settlement drive, it is located approximately ten kilometers north east of Kiryat Gat and two...

, Gat and Negba

Negba

Negba is a kibbutz in the northern Negev, Israel. Located near the cities of Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council...

. Between 1955 and 1961 twenty more settlements were established.

The area is covered by three regional councils

Regional council (Israel)

Regional councils are one of the three types of local government entities found in Israel, with the other two being cities and local councils. As of 2003, there were 53 regional councils in Israel, usually responsible for governing a number of settlements spread across rural areas...

 - Lakhish

Lakhish Regional Council

Lakhish Regional Council is a regional council in the South District of Israel. It surrounds the ancient city of Lakhish and the modern city of Kiryat Gat. It was founded in 1955. Today it includes 15 moshavim and one village, as listed below. As of 2008, three new communities are being built in...

, Shafir

Shafir Regional Council

Shafir Regional Council is a regional council in the South District of Israel near the city of Kiryat Gat.The council is bordered on the north by the Be'er Tuvia Regional Council, on the east by Yoav Regional Council and Kiryat Gat, on the south by Lakhish Regional Council, and on the west by Hof...

 and Yoav

Yoav Regional Council

Yoav Regional Council is a regional council in the South District of Israel. It is located near the cities of Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon...

 - and one city council

City council (Israel)

A City council is the official designation of a city within Israel's system of local government.City council status may be granted by the Interior Minister to a municipality, usually a local council, whose population surpasses 20,000 and whose character is urban, defined as having areas zoned for...

, Kiryat Gat. In the year 2009 70,200 people lived in the region, 100% of them Jews.