This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Auja al-Hafir (Arabic: عوجة الحفير, also Auja) was an ancient road junction close to water wells in the western Negev and eastern Sinai.

[9] 'Auja al-Hafir lay in a tract of 604 dunams privately owned by the Turkish sultan Abdul Hamid II.

[12] From 1905 to 1915 the Ottoman authorities built a railroad, as well as a large administrative centre complete with an apartment building for the clerks.

[10] In mid-January, 1915, a Turkish Army force of 20,000 entered Sinai by way of El-Auja on an unsuccessful expedition against the Suez Canal.

[9] The central route across the desert to the Suez Canal crossed from El Auja to Ismailia, until 1948 this was the only paved road between Palestine and Egypt.

[20] At the start of the 1936 disturbances the British Mandate authorities used Auja as a prison camp for arrested Palestinian Arab leaders including Awny Abdul Hadi.

[citation needed] In the Battle of 'Auja, a campaign of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it was captured by the 89th Mechanized Commando Battalion of Israel, which had an English-speaking platoon of volunteers from England, Germany, the Netherlands, Rhodesia, South Africa, and the U.S.[22] As a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, the area around the village, known as the al-Auja Zone, became a 145 km2 demilitarized zone (DMZ), with compliance monitored by the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).

[23][24][25] Despite a recent request for compliance with the armistice and over the objections of UNTSO Chief of Staff Burns and UN Secretary General Hammarskjöld,[26] Israel re-militarized the area on September 21, 1955.