Netiv HaLamed-Heh was established on 16 August 1949 by demobilised soldiers on land that had belonged to the depopulated Palestinian village of Bayt Nattif. The soldiers had been members of the 4th Company of the Palmach's Harel Brigade, and the settlement was initially named Peled (an acronym for Pluga Daled, lit. "Daled Company", daled being the 4th letter of the Hebrew alphabet). It was later renamed after the 35 Haganah soldiers killed in a convoy sent to resupply the Gush Etzion kibbutzim during the 1947–48 Civil War (Lamed-Heh is 35 in Hebrew numerals).