Editing Eilat (section)

===Modern city===
[[File:Raising the Ink Flag at Umm Rashrash (cropped).jpg|alt=Israeli soldiers stabilize a flag pole whilst another soldier climbs it in order to raise an improvised flag; the soldier is seen about halfway up the flag pole. Other soldiers look on.|thumb|190px|The raising of the [[Ink Flag]], when Eilat was captured during [[Operation Uvda]]]]

During the [[Mandatory Palestine |British Mandate era]], a British police post existed in the area, which was known as ''Umm Al-Rashrash''. The area was designated as part of the Jewish state in the [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|1947 UN Partition Plan]]. During the [[1948 Arab-Israeli War]], the abandoned police post, which consisted of five clay huts, was taken without a fight on March 10, 1949, as part of [[Operation Uvda]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=John S. Haupert|title=Development of Israel's Frontier Port of Elat|journal= The Professional Geographer|volume=16|issue= 2|pages=13–16|doi=10.1111/j.0033-0124.1964.00013.x|year=1964|bibcode=1964ProfG..16...13H | issn=0033-0124 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Nowar|first1=Maan Abu|title=The history of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.|date=2002|publisher=Ithaca Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0863722868|page=297|edition=1.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_JtAAAAMAAJ|access-date=2015-07-07|archive-date=2016-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501210123/https://books.google.com/books?id=H_JtAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> This marked the end of Israel's war for independence. The [[Ink Flag#History|memorial at the historical place]] of March 1949 was declared a [[List of National Heritage Sites of Israel|National Heritage Site]] in 1994.

The town developed over the following years. [[Eilat Airport]] was built in 1949 and individual ships began arriving in the 1950s, but as there were no dedicated port facilities they unloaded their goods at sea. In the early 1950s, Eilat was a small and remote town, populated largely by port workers, soldiers, and former prisoners. The town's development accelerated in 1955, when it had a population of about 500. The Timna Copper Mines<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.timna.co.il/ |title=Timna Copper Mines homepage |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419020843/http://www.timna.co.il/ |archive-date=2016-04-19 }}</ref> near the [[Timna Valley]] and the [[Port of Eilat]] were opened that year and concerted effort by the Israeli government to populate Eilat began, starting with Jewish immigrant families from [[Morocco]] being resettled there. Eilat began to develop rapidly after the [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956, with its tourism industry in particular starting to flourish. The [[Israeli Navy]]'s Eilat naval base was founded that year.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1956/12/27/01/article/12|title=⁨Untitled⁩ &#124; ⁨דבר⁩ &#124; 27 דצמבר 1956 &#124; אוסף העיתונות &#124; הספרייה הלאומית|website=www.nli.org.il}}</ref> The town's population grew to 5,300 in 1961. [[Yoseftal Medical Center]] and the [[Trans-Israel pipeline|Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline]] were completed in 1968, and the population increased further, reaching 13,100 in 1972 and 18,900 in 1983.

[[File:PikiWiki Israel 14880 The city of Eilat.jpg|thumb|250px|Eilat in 1963|left]]

After the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] Arab countries maintained a state of hostility with Israel, blocking all land routes; Israel's access to and trade with the rest of the world was by air and sea alone. Further, Egypt denied passage through the [[Suez Canal]] to Israeli-registered ships or to any ship carrying cargo to or from Israeli ports. This made Eilat and its sea port crucial to Israel's communications, commerce and trade with Africa and Asia, and for oil imports. Without recourse to a port on the Red Sea Israel would have been unable to develop its diplomatic, cultural and trade ties beyond the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] basin and Europe. This happened in 1956 and again in 1967, when Egypt's closure of the [[Straits of Tiran]] to Israeli shipping effectively blockaded the port of Eilat. In 1956, this led to Israel's participation alongside Britain and France in the war against Egypt sparked by the [[Suez Crisis]], while in 1967, 90% of Israeli oil passed through the Straits of Tiran.<ref name= Shlaim224>{{cite book |author1=[[Avi Shlaim |Shlaim, Avi]] |author2= Louis, William Roger |title= The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences |year= 2012 |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00236-4 |quote= 90% of Israeli oil was imported through the Straits of Tiran |page= 224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YhNPNeBh8IC&pg=PA27 |access-date=20 February 2016 |archive-date= 20 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320012556/http://books.google.com/books?id=8YhNPNeBh8IC&pg=PA27 |url-status= live}}</ref> Oil tankers that were due to pass through the straits were delayed.<ref name= Shlaim27>Shlaim & Louis  (2016), p. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150320012556/http://books.google.com/books?id=8YhNPNeBh8IC&pg=PA27 27].</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Daily brief to the U.S president on 27 May 1967 |date=27 May 1967 |quote= diverted as was a sister ship yesterday |url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/pdbnews/blanton11.pdf |access-date= 26 May 2014 |archive-date=17 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140617075433/http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/pdbnews/blanton11.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The straits' closure was cited by Israel as an additional ''[[casus belli]]'' leading to the outbreak of the [[Six-Day War]]. Following [[Peace treaty|peace treaties]] signed with [[Egyptian–Israeli Peace Treaty|Egypt in 1979]] and [[Israel–Jordan peace treaty|Jordan in 1994]], Eilat's borders with its neighbors were finally opened.

====Israeli–Arab conflict====
Eilat is especially defended by its own special forces unit [[LOTAR Eilat]]. It is a reservist [[Israeli Special Forces Units| special forces unit of the IDF]] trained in counter-terrorism and [[hostage rescue]] in the Eilat area, which has taken part in many counter-terrorist missions in the region since its formation in 1974. The Lotar unit is composed solely of reservists, citizens who must be Eilat residents between the ages of 20 and 60, who are on call in case of a terrorist attack on the city. It is one of only three units in the IDF authorized to free hostages on its own command.<ref>[http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=857 The real 24: An inside look at an elite IDF anti-terror unit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702134452/http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=857 |date=2015-07-02 }} Friday August 26, 2011</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/02/10/5-things-didnt-know-eilat-counterterrorism-unit/ |title=5 Things You Didn't Know about the Eilat Counterterrorism Unit |access-date=2018-11-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220121937/https://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/02/10/5-things-didnt-know-eilat-counterterrorism-unit/ |archive-date=2016-02-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2007 the [[Eilat bakery bombing]] killed three civilian bakers.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1170133200&en=672e889f68796e72&ei=5094&partner=homepage ''Suicide Bomb Kills 3 in Bakery in Israel''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215132835/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1170133200&en=672e889f68796e72&ei=5094&partner=homepage |date=2018-12-15 }} – The New York Times, Jan 29, 2007</ref><ref name="warned">{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/eilat-driver-warned-police-about-terrorist-minutes-before-attack-1.185514 |title=Eilat driver warned police about terrorist minutes before attack |newspaper=Haaretz |date=April 17, 2006 |access-date=October 29, 2012 |archive-date=December 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201084854/https://www.haaretz.com/news/eilat-driver-warned-police-about-terrorist-minutes-before-attack-1.185514 |url-status=live }}</ref> This was the first such attack in Eilat proper,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=49624 |title=Peretz orders IDF to prepare for operations in Gaza |newspaper=The Jerusalem Post |date=January 29, 2007 |access-date=October 29, 2012 |archive-date=December 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215064335/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=49624 |url-status=live }}</ref> although other terror attacks had been carried out in the area.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/819130.html |title=Past terror attacks in the Eilat area |newspaper=Haaretz |date=January 29, 2007 |access-date=October 29, 2012 |archive-date=April 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090418064135/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/819130.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2011, terrorists infiltrated Israel across the [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] border to execute multiple attacks on Highway 12, including a civilian bus and private car a few miles north of Eilat, in what became known as the [[2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks]].<ref name="Haaretz1.382132">{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/september-songs-1.382132|work=Haaretz|date=September 2, 2011|title=September songs|first=Amos|last=Harel|access-date=March 18, 2012|archive-date=September 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925002312/http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/september-songs-1.382132|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Wyre Davies|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10807166|title='One killed' after rockets strike Jordan and Israel|publisher=BBC|date=August 2, 2010|access-date=January 28, 2011|archive-date=September 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100916182019/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10807166|url-status=live}}</ref>

In order to prevent terrorist infiltration of Israel from the Sinai, Israel has built the [[Egypt–Israel barrier]], a steel barrier equipped with cameras, radar and motion sensors along the country's southern border.<ref>{{cite news|title=On Israel's uneasy border with Egypt, a fence rises|author=Joel Greenberg|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/on-israels-uneasy-border-with-egypt-a-fence-rises/2011/11/28/gIQAZt19JO_story.html|newspaper=Washington Post|date=2011-12-02|access-date=2012-03-25|archive-date=2012-03-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319093357/http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/on-israels-uneasy-border-with-egypt-a-fence-rises/2011/11/28/gIQAZt19JO_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The fence was completed in January 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title=On Israel-Egypt border, best defense is a good fence|author=Amos Harel|url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/on-israel-egypt-border-best-defense-is-a-good-fence-1.395239|newspaper=Haaretz|date=2011-11-13|access-date=2012-01-07|archive-date=2017-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201145751/https://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/on-israel-egypt-border-best-defense-is-a-good-fence-1.395239|url-status=live}}</ref>

During the [[Gaza war]] and ensuing [[Red Sea crisis]], the port saw an 85% reduction in volumes and by 12 July 2024 the port of Eilat declared bankruptcy resulting in it seeing no economic activity or revenue for eight months.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240716-israel-says-eilat-port-bankrupt-after-months-houthi-naval-blockade/|title=Israel says Eilat Port 'bankrupt' after months of Houthi naval blockade|date=2024-07-16|access-date=2024-07-21|website=Middle East Monitor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716194526/https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240716-israel-says-eilat-port-bankrupt-after-months-houthi-naval-blockade/|archive-date=2024-07-16|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Future development plans====
[[File:North Beach Eilat.jpg|thumb|Eilat's north beach|left]]

In July 2012, Israel signed an agreement with China to cooperate in building the [[high-speed railway to Eilat]], a railway line which will serve both passenger and freight trains. It will link Eilat with [[Beersheba]] and [[Tel Aviv]], and will run through the [[Arava Valley]] and [[Nahal Zin]] (see [[Zin Desert#Modern Desert of Zin|Zin Desert]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000762276&fid=1725 |title=Israel, China agree to build Eilat railway |publisher=Globes |date=2012-07-03 |access-date=2013-03-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130808125753/http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000762276&fid=1725 |archive-date=2013-08-08 }}</ref>

The former [[Eilat Airport]] was closed on 18 March 2019 after the opening of [[Ramon Airport]]. The land occupied by the former airport is to be redeveloped. The new Ramon Airport opened in January 2019, {{convert|18|km|abbr=off}} north of Eilat and replaced both Eilat Airport and the civilian use of [[Ovda Airport]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ramon-airport.com |title=Ramon Airport |publisher=Ramon Airport Website |access-date=2016-01-30 |archive-date=2016-01-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160128135205/http://www.ramon-airport.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Hotels and apartment buildings, containing a total of 2,080 hotel rooms and 1,000 apartments will be constructed on the site, as well as 275 [[dunam]]s of public space and pedestrian paths. The plans also set aside space for the railway line and an underground railway station. The plan's goal is to create an urban continuum between the city center and North Beach, as well as tighten the links between the city's neighborhoods, which were separated by the airport.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000738696&fid=1124 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130108060859/http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000738696&fid=1124 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-01-08 |title=Hotels, 1,000 apartments planned for Eilat Airport site |publisher=Globes |date=2012-04-03 |access-date=2013-03-12 }}</ref>

In addition, there are plans to move the [[Port of Eilat]] and the [[Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline]] terminal to the northern part of the city, as well as to turn it into a university town of science and research, and brand it an international sports city. All these projects are part of a plan to increase Eilat's population to 150,000 people and build 35,000 hotel rooms.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000630285&fid=1725 |title=Despite Japan, IEC chairman urges nuclear power |publisher=Globes |date=2011-03-15 |access-date=2013-03-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325115242/http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000630285&fid=1725 |archive-date=2011-03-25 }}</ref>