Incinerated by Gaza Balloons in 2020, Gvar’am Preserve Is Afire with Red Blossoms

Photo Credit: Kobi Sofer / Israel Nature and Parks Authority

The Gvar’am sandstone preserve is located in the Western Negev, southeast of Ashkelon, encompassing 300 acres of aeolian quartz sandstone with carbonate cement, known in local Arabic as kurkar, which is the rock type of which lithified sea sand dunes consist.

Last summer, the preserve, which boasted a magnificent forest, was destroyed as a result of incendiary balloons that were launched from terrorist squads in the Gaza Strip.

Today, while the trees are still burnt, the desert ground was covered with a carpet of red kalaniyot (Anemone coronaria) that return here every year between Tu BiShvat and Passover.