Urban development Ashkelon

holiday inn , 13th-century tomb of sheikh awad

in 1949 , 1950, 3 immigrant transit camps (ma abarot) established alongside majdal (renamed migdal) jewish refugees arab countries, romania , poland. northwest of migdal , immigrant camps, on lands of depopulated palestinian village al-jura, entrepreneur zvi segal, 1 of signatories of israel s declaration of independence, established upscale barnea neighborhood.

a large tract of land south of barnea handed on trusteeship of south african zionist federation, established neighborhood of afridar. plans city drawn in south africa according garden city model. migdal surrounded broad ring of orchards. barnea developed slowly, afridar grew rapidly. first homes, built in 1951, inhabited new jewish immigrants south africa , south america, native-born israelis. first public housing project residents of transit camps, southern hills project (hageva ot hadromiyot) or zion hill (givat zion), built in 1952.

under plan signed in october 2015, 7 new neighborhoods comprising 32,000 housing units, new stretch of highway, , 3 new highway interchanges built, turning ashkelon sixth-largest city in israel.