 Before the establishment of the state of Israel, the people of Na'an were active in both the British Jewish Brigade (two members of the kibbutz died in service during World War II) and the Haganah.Prominent Haganah leader and later Israeli parliament member Yisrael Galili was a member of the kibbutz and a large Haganah weapon cache was stored in a hidden cellar under one of the kibbutz houses.That cache was the largest cache not caught by the British Mandatory forces during Operation Agatha and kibbutz elders claim that Yisrael Galili (who evaded capture by the British) was spirited out of the kibbutz in the guise of a pregnant woman set to give birth.