Gesher is one of 60 British forts (Tegart forts) built during the 1930’s and 1940’s around the frontiers of Palestine and Israel to help dealing with the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, a nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandate Palestine against British colonial rule. Gesher British police station was later used as a prison. From 1948 to 1967 it was used as an Israeli military base and was abandoned shortly after the 1967 war.