In the early 50’s, after a large wave of immigration to Israel, the Jewish Agency decided to establish settlements in the Lakhish region. This region is located between the Judean Mountains and Ashkelon, and in its center is the city of Kiryat Gat. Various factors led to the setting up of the Lakhish region: the need to settle many immigrants who had come to Israel, the desire to create a continuous line of settlement in the south and the vision of David Ben-Gurion, to encourage settlement in the Negev.
As a lesson from the settling of immigrants in earlier years, special emphasize was put on the regional dimension of the Lakhish region and it was planned to be made up of homogeneous ethnical units. Various types of communities were set up in the Lakhish region: moshavim, regional centers and an urban center. There were also three Nahal settlements in the region.
In the first few years, the Lakhish settlements were established and managed by the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency, and gradually became self-managed settlements. This way, the immigrants who had come from an urban background, could become specialized in the agricultural field until they could manage the settlements themselves. The first settlement established in the Lakhish region was Otsem. Between 1955 and 1961 twenty more settlements were established.