After several failed attempts during the 1920s and 1930s to establish a permanent Jewish foothold in an area south of Jerusalem on part of present-day Gush Etzion (a Jewish Israeli settlement bloc in the southern West Bank), Jews attempted to settle the land again between 1943 and 1947. They established four Jewish communities: Kfar Etzion, Masuot Yitzhak, Ein Tzurim and Revadim. During the War of 1948, the Haganah (a Jewish paramilitary group and the precursor to the Israeli army) sent a convoy to reinforce the Jewish settlements. The convoy came under heavy attack and all 35 men died in the battle. In the course of the War of 1948, all four settlements were destroyed and the entire area came under Jordanian rule. The loss of these four Jewish communities and their failed rescue remains in Israeli collective memory, especially among settler communities, and contributes to a nationalist and religious connection to the modern-day settlement bloc of Gush Etzion. Kfar Etzion was the first settlement to be established (or re-established) after the War of 1967. See “Settlements in Focus: Vol. 1, Issue 14 - Gush Etzion.” 11 Nov. 2005. Americans for Peace Now. 18 July 2011. http://peacenow.org/entries/archive1709; and  “The Etzion Bloc.” Jewish Virtual Library. 18 July 2011. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Etzion.html.  http://www.justvision.org/glossary/gush-etzion-capture-1948