[1] Named after the ancient Phoenician city of Dor, the moshav was established in June 1948 on land of the recently depopulated Palestinian village of al-Tantura in the wake of the Tantura massacre.

Later, the Shkil tribe of sea raiders inhabited Tel Dor, as described in the letters of the Egyptian traveler Wen-Amon.

The ancient city of Dor was situated on the excavated tell north of today's moshav, overlooking Kibbutz Nahsholim.

Archaeologists have excavated Roman temples and mosaic floors, as well as stone-walled houses from the Hellenistic period, when the site was known as Dora.

[6][7] Today, according to a report in the newspaper Haaretz, a car park for the beaches of Dor and neighboring Nahsholim contains a mass grave from the 1948 Tantura massacre.