Nitzanim Nature Reserve, Coastal nature reserve in Southern Plain, Israel

Nitzanim Nature Reserve is a coastal protected area between two major towns, featuring expansive sandy dunes and Mediterranean plant life. The landscape combines beach environments, mobile dunes, and drier inland vegetation into interconnected habitats.

The Nitzanim Sands were declared a public area in the early 1980s by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, and the Nitzanim Sand Dune Nature Reserve was designated on 2 June 2005. In 2005 a plan to resettle evacuated Gaza Strip settlers in the dunes was dropped after environmental opposition; only one new settlement, Be'er Ganim, was built, and Nitzan was enlarged, both on farmland.

The reserve takes its name from Kibbutz Nitzanim, whose residents were evacuated and captured by the Egyptian army in 1948; the kibbutz was later re-established 3–4 km south, and the small settlement of Nitzan now stands on its original site. The northern dunes are open to the public free of charge all year.

The northern section is open year-round at no cost and has marked trails for easy exploration. The southern part is closed for security reasons, but the accessible areas provide plenty of space for different types of visits.

About a kilometre from the sea lies a chain of groundwater pools, roughly a kilometre long from north to south. They formed when kurkar quarries dug between the 1960s and 1990s, some 20 metres deep between the cliffs, flooded with groundwater; hydrophilic plants now grow around them.