Three lookouts

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The three lookouts (Hebrew: שלושת המצפים‎, Shloshet Miztpim) is a term used to refer to three Jewish settlements built in the Negev desert in 1943.

The settlements were built on land owned by the Jewish National Fund, with the aim of both protecting the land, and assessing the local soils and climate and their suitability for agriculture. The first settlement, Mitzpe Gvulot (today Gvulot) was established on 12 May 1943, and was the first Jewish settlement in the Negev in the modern era.^[1] Its founders were immigrants from Romania and Turkey who were members of the "Kibbutz Eretz Israel Gimel" movement within Hashomer Hatzair.

Later in the year, two more settlements were established; Mitzpe Revivim (by HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed members) and Mitzpe Beit Eshel. All three were assisted by the Moshavim Movement.

Today Gvulot and Revivim are both kibbutzim, whilst Beit Eshel was destroyed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and abandoned.