Kibbutz Hanita, in western upper Galilee, was founded in 1938 in the Security Settlement operation. The kibbutz was founded as a Stockade and Watchtower settlement in the depth of Arab territory near Lebanon's border. At the end of the 1930's it served as an educational center of the Hagana. In the 1940's it had been the base of the terrestrial unit in the Hagana. In the War of Independence it was under siege until liberated in Ben Ami operation.