IDF: Ashkelon-Sderot train line, closed since October 7, is safe to reopen next month

Military says ‘no expense has been spared’ in beefing up protection for Gaza-adjacent line, using new technologies and physical defenses, in addition to surveillance capabilities

A view of the Israel Railways train station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, March 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
A view of the Israel Railways train station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, March 27, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that the Ashkelon-Sderot train line was safe to reopen on February 1, nearly two years after the vital route was scrapped amid persistent rocket fire from Gaza.

The announcement came hours after the Prime Minister’s Office announced overnight that Israel had agreed to a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

The military said the decision was reached following a fresh assessment, and after the train line had been beefed up against rocket fire.

“The IDF considers the train a vital, strategic national infrastructure, and a central part of the western Negev’s rehabilitation,” it said. “Therefore, no expense has been spared to allow its return in the best and most secure fashion.”

The IDF said it had prepared for the Sderot-Ashkelon line to reopen by deploying new technologies, physical defenses and surveillance capacities around it.

The military added that it had carried out other activities in northern Gaza and the border region to remove threats to the train line. Earlier this month, the army said it had destroyed a Hamas compound in north Gaza’s Beit Hanoun that was considered a threat to the train.

Destruction in a north Gaza neighborhood which the military says had been used as a hideout and command center by senior Hamas commanders in an undated photo released for publication by the military on January 4, 2025. What the IDF says are rocket parts can be seen in the foreground. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Sderot train station was shuttered in May 2023 due to security concerns, and its reopening was delayed after it sustained rocket damage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 onslaught.

When the station reopened last March, amid the gradual return of evacuated residents, northbound lines were not renewed, due to their proximity to Gaza, and have been frequent targets of Hamas’s rocket fire.

The closure doubled the roughly hour-long train ride from Sderot to Tel Aviv, as commuters were forced to travel via the Ofakim and Beersheba stations.

Meanwhile, economic daily The Marker reported late last month that the Planning Authority, which oversees land development in Israel, had authorized the Defense Ministry to construct a two-part cement wall that would offer protection to vulnerable parts of the Ashkelon-Sderot line. The project was said to cost an estimated NIS 40 million ($11.2 million).

The plan reportedly passed despite the opposition of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who, The Marker said, wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in June that “the real meaning of such an investment is defeat in the war” in Gaza — ostensibly because it represented acquiescence to continued rocket fire.

The southern city of Sderot was one of the locations hit by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel’s south to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

A car destroyed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists is seen in Sderot, Israel, on October 7, 2023. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

During their rampage, terrorists attacked the Sderot police station, which became the scene of heavy battles between Hamas and the station’s police officers. The building was ultimately completely destroyed. At least 50 civilians and 20 police officers were killed in Sderot on October 7.

Following Hamas’s attack, the IDF evacuated communities along the Gazan border, including Sderot. The residents were cleared to return to the town in February.

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