[1][2][3][better source needed] In the Old Testament, Besor was a ravine or brook in the extreme south-west of Judah, where 200 of David's men stayed behind because they were faint, while the other 400 pursued the Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:9–10, 30:21).

[5] In 520, the so-called monastery of Seridus was founded a bit further south where the famous hermits Barsanuphius and John the Prophet lived.

[7] In October 2023, as part of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Israel ordered 1.1 million people then living north of the Wadi Gaza bridge to move south.

[citation needed] Finally, Bezor Stream flows across the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, and into the Mediterranean sea.

[13] Several archaeological sites were excavated by Eann Macdonald in 1929 to 1930 along the Wadi Ghazzeh in lower Nahal Besor that show signs of specialist flint production.

[14][15] Finds of pottery and flints were studied by Ann Roshwalb who found evidence of both Egyptian and late Neolithic occupations.

[17] Taur Ikhbeineh is an Early Bronze Age settlement 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) inland from Gaza's Mediterranean coast.

[21] Tell Jemmeh (Arabic) or Tel Gamma (תל גמה; Hebrew) is located on the west side of Nahal Besor, near Re'im and is close to 50,000 square metres (5.0 ha; 12 acres) in size.

[citation needed] The site was continuously settled only between the Middle Bronze IIB (c. 1700–1550 BCE) and the Persian period (c. 530–330 BC).

The tell is 37 hectares (91 acres) in size and 15 metres (49 ft) high and was an important fortified site in the Middle Bronze Age.

It has been linked by William Foxwell Albright to the ancient settlement of Sharuhen, although Tell el-Ajjul near the estuary of Nahal Besor, and Tel Haror to the north, are also being suggested.