Tzur Shalem is an Israeli outpost attached to the Israeli settlement of Karmei Tzur in The Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank.
[4] The outpost, which is just 100 metres (330 ft) from its parent community of Karmei Tzur, started with 6 caravans.
[3] In June 2002 Palestinians killed Eyal and Yael Sorek and army reservist Shalom Mordechai in Tzur Shalem.
The attack called the legitimacy of outposts in general into question in Israel.
Avraham Rotem, a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said that a settlement of even five families would require 60 to 80 soldiers along with a vast amount of infrastructure in order to defend it.