Beersheva

Beersheva's initial existence was based on the fact that it was strategically located on the main trading roads junction between East and West, and it had water available for drinking, crops and sustaining animals.

Abraham arrived in Beersheva in the second millennium B.C.E. and dug wells (7 wells - and thus the name Be'er, meaning "well" and Sheva, meaning "seven").

For a long time, the site of Beersheva designated the southern point of the territory of the Israelites, which extended “from Dan to Beersheva”. Thereafter, it is not mentioned until the moment when the Romans establish a garrison there in 70 C.E. to contain and control the Nabateans, the semi-nomadic tribe of Trans-Jordan, who were allied with the Jews in the revolt against Rome.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Turks built a police station in Beersheba in order to control the Bedouin and it became a gathering for other inhabitants. During the period of the British Mandate of Palestine Beersheba remained a small administrative center, with police and local courts. Most residents worked for the British. On 21 October 1948, as part of Operation Yoav, the Israel Defense Forces captured Beersheba from the Egyptian Army, which had invaded Israel and captured Beersheba in May 1948.

Today, it has a population of over 200,000 inhabitants. Until 2004 there were almost no terrorist attacks in Beersheba but on 31 August 2004, sixteen people were killed in two suicide bombings on buses in Beersheba for which the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility. On August 28, 2005, another suicide bomber attacked this time at the central bus station seriously injuring two security guards

Great Be'er Sheva Links:

•  Ben Gurion University
•  Beersheba Municipality
•  Soroka University Medical Centre
•  Beersheba Theatre