Arad ( ) is a city in the Southern District of Israel. It is located on the border of the Negev and the Judaean deserts, west of the Dead Sea and east of Beersheba. The city is home to a diverse population of in , including Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews (both secular and religious), Bedouins and Black Hebrews, as well as new immigrants.
After attempts to settle the area in the 1920s, Arad was founded in November 1962 as an Israeli development town, the first planned city in Israel. Arad's population grew significantly with the Aliyah from the former Soviet Union. It became a city in 1995.
Landmarks in Arad include the ruins of Tel Arad, Arad Park, a domestic airfield and Israel's first legal race circuit. The city is known for its annual summer music festival, the Arad Festival.
History
Antiquity
Arad is named after the Biblical Bronze Age Canaanite and later Israelite town located at Tel Arad (a Biblical archaeology site famous for the discovery of ostraca), which is located approximately west of modern Arad.
The Bible (Judges 1:16) describes it as a Canaanite stronghold whose king kept the Israelites from moving from the Negev to the Judean Mountains, although Tel Arad was destroyed over 1,200 years before the arrival of the Israelites. However, Shoshenq I's chronicles seem to mention a settlement in Tel Arad. After its destruction during the Canaanite era, the town lay abandoned for centuries before being resettled by the Israelites from the 11th century BCE onward. The Israelites initially settled it as an unwalled piece of land cut off as an official or sacred domain was established on the upper hill. It was later a garrison-town known as "The Citadel". The citadel and sanctuary are believed to have been constructed at the time of Kings David and Solomon. Artifacts found within the sanctuary of the citadel mostly reflect offerings of oil, wine, wheat, etc. brought there by numerous people during the time of the Kingdom of Judah, up to Judah's fall to the Babylonians.
Under the Judaean kings, the citadel was periodically refortified, remodeled and rebuilt, until ultimately it was destroyed between 597 BCE and 577 BCE whilst Jerusalem was under siege by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. However, during the Persian, Hasmonean, Roman, and early Muslim eras, locals continued to transport these items to the sacred precinct of the upper hill. Markers of these ancient Israelite rituals remain to this day, with broken pottery littering the entire site.
During the Byzantine period, the location was still correctly identified by Eusebius. Nomadic Bedouins preserved the name "Arad" for 1,100 years, even as the site remained uninhabited.
Ancient Arad became a Christian bishopric. Stephanus, one of its bishops, was a signatory of the synodal letter of John III of Jerusalem against Severus of Antioch in 518 and took part in the 536 synod of the three Roman provinces of Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda, and Palaestina Salutaris (to the last of which Arad belonged) against Anthimus I of Constantinople.Michel Lequien, , Paris 1740, Vol. III, coll. 727–730Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 454 No longer a residential bishopric, Arad is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.Annuario Pontificio 2013 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 ), p. 836
British Mandate era The first modern attempt to settle the area was made by the Yishuv, the body of Jewish residents in Mandatory Palestine, on 23 February 1921, when the British Mandate government allowed discharged soldiers from the Jewish Legion to settle in the area. Nine men and two women attempted the task, but after four months were forced to leave because water was not found in the area.
State of Israel
On 15 November 1960, a planning team, followed by a full-fledged committee on 29 December, was appointed by the Israeli cabinet to examine the possibility of establishing a city in the northeastern Negev desert and Arad region. An initial budget of IL50,000 was granted for the project, headed by Aryeh Eliav. On 31 January 1961, the final location was chosen ( southwest of Mount Kidod), and plans were approved for roads and water connections. In March 1961, blueprints for a city of 10,000- 20,000 residents were drawn up. Yona Pitelson was the chief architect and planner.
The plan took into account topography and climate, with residential buildings constructed with large inner courtyards that offered protection from the desert sun and wind. High density residential areas were built first in order to create an urban milieu and shorten walking distances.
The oil company Nefta built a work camp in the area in July 1961, consisting of six temporary sheds, after oil was found there in commercial quantities. The town itself was established in 1962 by a group of young ex-kibbutz and ex-moshav members seeking an environment free of overcrowding, traffic, noise, and pollution. The founding ceremony was held on 21 November, and attended by then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. It was one of the last development towns to be founded. According to the city website, Arad was the first pre-planned city in Israel.
Until 1964, Arad had about 160 families, most of whom were natives. After 1971 Arad began absorbing olim (Jewish immigrants), mostly from the Soviet Union, but also from English speaking countries and Latin America, and its population increased from 4,000 in 1969 to 10,500 in 1974 and 12,400 in 1983. During the first half of the 1990s, Arad absorbed 6,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union. In 1995, the city had 20,900 residents. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared Arad a city on 29 June 1995.
On 21 March 2026, during the 2026 Iran War, Arad was hit by an Iranian missile strike aimed at several cities in southern Israel that seriously damaged several buildings and injured more than 110 people in what was described as a mass casualty event."Iranian missiles injure 180 in towns near Israeli nuclear site", BBC, March 22, 2026. Accessed March 22, 2026. "Israel's health ministry says 180 people were injured - some seriously - in Iranian missile strikes on two southern Israeli towns close to a nuclear facility. The ministry says 116 people were injured in Arad and another 64 in Dimona, after ballistic missiles hit the towns on Saturday evening.... In Arad, local residents said the blasts they heard on Saturday were terrifying. The missile badly damaged several buildings, leaving a deep crater."
Geography
Arad is located mostly on the western and southwestern Kidod Range, and the Arad Plain, which marks the southwestern end of the Judean Desert. It is located west of the southern end of the Dead Sea, and is by road, east of Beersheva, south of Jerusalem, south east of Tel Aviv, and north of the southernmost city of Eilat.
The city spans an area of , one of the largest municipal areas in Israel, even though its urban area is much smaller. In 1993, the city's jurisdiction was , still many times larger than the urban area. The historical site of Tel Arad and the Arad Park (also known as Ran Grove) can also be found within its municipal area, west of the urban core. Arad also has a commercial landing strip located slightly to the south of its urban core. It borders the Tamar and Abu Basma regional councils, and the closest local municipality to Arad is the Bedouin local council Kuseife.
Neighborhoods
Each neighborhood in Arad contains streets named in a thematic manner, for example, a neighborhood where all streets are named after jewels. The exception to this are the four central quarters, which have more conventional street names, and the original two neighborhoods (Rishonim and Ne'urim). The themed neighborhoods make up the entire city north of Highway 31. South of the highway is Arad's industrial zone (the northern area being the light industry zone). The neighborhoods are as follows:
NameMeaningThemeAvishurAbishurTlalimDew (plural)Leva'otLionessesYe'elimIbexesRehasim (under construction)RidgesStonesGevimCisternsFluvial bodiesHalamishFlintFruitsYehoshafatJehoshaphatKings of Israel and JudeaRishonimPioneersNe'urimYouthRenanimJoysMusicAyanotSpringsSpringsMa'ofFlightBirdsHatzavimSquillsMilitaryHardufOleanderHeights (figurative)ShakedAlmondPlantsRotemBroomJewelsNofim (Under construction)Views
Geology and topography
The western part of Arad is made up of loess land, while the eastern part is made up of sedimentary rock, including chalk, flint and dolomite.
Arad's elevation ranges between approximately above sea level, a notable peak being Mount Kidod (), located at the northeastern point of the city and named after Ras al-Kadadeh, the Arabic name for the hill. Other peaks within the municipal borders include Mount Kina () and Mount Brir (). There are several wadis that pass through Arad, notably the Ye'elim Stream (which runs along Highway 31) and Tze'elim Stream. Others include the Hesed, Keisan, Kidod, Kina, Malhata, Pra'im, Tavya, and other streams.
Climate
Between 1964 and 1974, Arad's average temperature in January was , and in July. The average yearly precipitation between 1960 and 1990 was , and between 1962 and 1978. Arad is thus situated in an arid area, where most precipitation falls in the winter months of December, January and February. It does however, on rare occasions, snow. Two examples are the massive snowstorm during the 1991–92 winter that swept through entire mountainous region of the Negev and January's snowstorm of 2008.
Demographics
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, of Arad's 24,400 2015 population, 80.3% were Jews, and another 16.8% were other non-Arabs. 11,900 (~48.8%) were men and 12,500 were women. 33.8% (the second highest in the country) were immigrants since 1990. Arad's population peaked in 2002 at 24,500. Arad's former mayor, Moty Brill, said that the reason for the city's decline is its failure to absorb the massive immigration from Russia. In early 2007, a study ordered by the Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry found that Arad suffered from a negative image, and described it a "settlement that drives residents away".
In 2015, Arad had 10,983 (~45%) salaried workers and 529 (~2.2%) self-employed. 11,805 were receiving children's benefits, 321 were receiving unemployment benefits, and 1,168 were receiving income guarantee. The average monthly income for self-employed workers was NIS 6,934, with salaried employees earning an average of NIS 6,988 (NIS 9,008 for men and NIS 5,184 for women).
The IDF's City of Training Bases, under construction near Beersheba, hopes to bring thousands of soldiers (mostly officers, senior NCOs and other staff) to live in the Negev, including Arad. According to Orli Yehezkel, CEO of the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee, said NIS 4.5 million will be invested in Arad, including a subsidy of NIS 1,000 per family per month for two years for families of soldiers wishing to move to Arad.
The Negev and Galilee Development Ministry envisions a tripling of Arad's population by 2025.
Economy
Other than tourist venues, Arad's commerce is mostly concentrated in the central commerce area, as envisioned in the original plan. There is one shopping mall in the city, the Arad Mall, in the northern block of the commerce sector. In addition to the main area, there are small shop clusters in most neighborhoods in the city, notably a building called The Star (HaKokhav) in the Tlalim quarter. A lone supermarket outside the center, Mega in the city, is located in the industrial zone, near the entrance to the city, and a major shopping complex is planned near it by a real estate company called Zim Centers. The Arad Market, open on Mondays, is located in the light industry zone.