This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Achziv (Hebrew: אַכְזִיב ʾAḵzīḇ) or Az-Zeeb (Arabic: الزيب, romanized: Az-Zīb) is an ancient site on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel, between the border with Lebanon and the city of Acre.

The Bordeaux Pilgrim mentions it in 333-334 CE still as a road station; Jewish sources of the Byzantine period call it Kheziv and Gesiv.

The sole permanent resident of Achziv since declaration of the State was Eli Avivi (1930-2018), an Israeli photographer and micronationalist who hosted visitors to the legally disputed micronation of "Akhzivland", a small stretch of beach where he lived since 1975 until his death.

[2] Mentioned in the Bible by its ancient name Achzib, evidence of human settlement at the site dates back to the 18th century BCE.

In the Middle Bronze IIA (MBIIA), remains are found at Phase N5 with features including child burials in storage jars below floors.

To the north and south the city extended to the two nearby rivers, which the Canaanite engineers connected by a fosse, thus transforming Achzib into an island.

[3] Between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE, it was a prosperous town, with public buildings and tombs with Phoenician inscriptions, attesting to the identity of its inhabitants at the time.

[8] Achzib is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (19:29) and Book of Judges (1:31) as a town assigned to the tribe of Asher in the Hebrew Bible, but the Asherites did not manage to conquer it from the Phoenicians:[9] According to Biblical history, King David added the city into his Kingdom, but King Solomon returned it to Hiram I as part of the famous pact; archaeological evidence indicates that it remained Phoenician.

[24] Arab geographer Ibn Jubayr toured Palestine in 1182 and mentioned az-Zeeb as a large fortress with a village and adjoining lands between Acre and Tyre.

[30] The Arab village of Az-Zeeb was established during the later Mamluk period with the houses erected using the stones of the destroyed Crusader castle; and thrived throughout the Ottoman rule.

According to the 1596 tax records, it was a village in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Akka, part of Sanjak Safad with a population of 132 households and 27 bachelors and an estimated total of 875 persons.

The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on several agricultural items including, wheat, barley, "summer crops", fruits, cotton, beehives, goats, and water buffalo; a total of 23,669 akçe.

[33] British traveler James Silk Buckingham describes az-Zeeb in 1816 as a small town built on a hill near the sea with few palm trees rising above its houses.

[34] During the period of Egyptian rule in Palestine, the sheikh (chief) of az-Zeeb, Said al-Sabi, joined the 1834 peasants' rebellion against governor Ibrahim Pasha.

[36] By the late 19th century, most of the village houses were built of stone, a mosque and a clinic had been established, and the residents cultivated olives, figs, mulberries, and pomegranates.

[42] The main economic sectors in the village were in fishing and agriculture, particularly fruit cultivation, which included bananas, citrus, olives, and figs.

Just before the official end to Mandate rule on May 14, 1948 and the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, az-Zeeb was captured by the Haganah's Carmeli Brigade, being one of the main places targeted in Operation Ben-Ami.

[45][38] Morris writes that two Haganah companies reported in mid-May 1948 that they were "attacking al Zib with the aim of blowing up the village".

Many of the inhabitants fled to Lebanon or nearby villages, but many also remained in az-Zeeb until they were relocated by the Israeli authorities to the Arab coastal town of Mazra'a.

Today Achziv shores are part of the Achziv-Rosh haNikra marine protected area, which is located between the city of Naharia to the south and the Israeli-Lebanon border to the north.