Israeli Highways

Israel's highways form the numbered intercity portion of a broader road system that includes urban, access, and non-urban roads.[1] The Ministry of Transportation distinguishes interurban highways from municipal roads, while construction and maintenance of the interurban network are conducted by the government companies Netivei Israel and Cross-Israel Highway.[7] Modern highways radiate from the country's major urban centers and connect them with communities and regions throughout Israel.[1]

Israel's main road network expanded rapidly after statehood, growing from roughly 1,000 miles to 1,860 miles during the country's first decade.[8] A 147-mile first-class road from Beersheba to Eilat, completed in 1957, provided the first road link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.[8]

A later milestone was the Trans-Israel Highway. Construction began in 1992, and the Cross-Israel Highway Company was established in March 1993 to advance the project.[1][7] The Library of Congress described it as Israel's first major privately financed project: the central toll-road section was assigned to a private concessionaire for thirty years, after which ownership would pass to the state.[7] Its first phase was a 90-kilometer toll road parallel to the greater Tel Aviv metropolitan area, built by an Israeli-Canadian consortium under a build-operate-transfer arrangement; the planned highway was described as extending 300 kilometers from the northern border to the Negev.[1]

The government's 2026 transportation plan defines its intercity-road indicators as covering roads numbered with one to three digits, excluding preferential or high-occupancy vehicle lanes.[2] A proposed numbering overhaul reported in 2018 envisioned a more systematic hierarchy: nationally important main roads would carry one-digit numbers, inter-district roads two digits, smaller regional roads three digits, and local roads four digits.[3] Odd numbers would designate east–west roads and even numbers north–south routes.[3]

Route 6 is divided into toll sections, and charges are calculated according to the number of sections traveled. The government guide cited here lists different rates for motorcycles, private cars, and trucks.[9]

The highway network links the country's principal population centers and provides long-distance corridors through the coastal plain, central mountain region, Jordan Valley, Negev, and Arava. Routes 2, 4, and 6 are major coastal north–south arteries, although all three have been reported as congested for much of the day.[5] Route 1 links Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, while Route 90 extends across the country from north to south.[10][6] Continued construction reflects efforts to expand capacity within a network reported in 2025 to contain 48 highways.[4]

Several highway proposals remain uncertain or politically contested. The road-numbering changes announced in 2018 included proposed new numbers for major routes, but the cited material does not establish that the overhaul was fully implemented.[3] A BESA Center proposal advocated a new Route 80 from Gilboa Mountain to Arad to divert north–south traffic from the coastal plain. The article described the route as a proposal and said construction of its Arad–Mishor Adumim portion had not begun for political reasons.[5]

Route 2 — the Coastal Highway connects Tel Aviv and Nahariya.[11] A 2013 report described it as a 90-kilometer highway and identified it at that time as Israel's most congested, carrying 87,000 vehicles daily, with traffic growth contributing to severe rush-hour delays.[12] Route 2, together with Routes 4 and 6, forms one of three principal north–south corridors along the coastal plain, all of which have been reported as congested most hours of the day.[5]

Route 4 runs longitudinally along the coastal plain.[5] A 2006 Survey of Israel road-map record describes interchange diagrams covering the Haifa–Yakum segment shared by Routes 2 and 4 and the Yakum–Ashdod segment shared by Routes 4 and 70.[13]

Route 6 — the Trans-Israel Highway (Cross-Israel Highway) had extended from Ein Tut in the north to Shoket West in the Negev by 2016, a distance of 175 kilometers at that time. The Shoket Interchange provided access to Route 60 south of Beersheba.[14] The road was tolled in the north and center, but the section south of the Sorek Interchange was free of charge when that extension opened.[14]

Construction of Highway 6 physically displaced segments of the Israel National Trail near the Eyal interchange, requiring changes to the trail's route.[15]

Route 40 runs 302 kilometers from Kfar Saba to Ketura Junction in the Arava, traversing the Sharon region, the Shfela, the Negev, the desert, a crater, and the Arava. The cited source calls it Israel's second-longest road.[11]

Route 90 is Israel's longest highway. A National Road Safety Authority report gives its length as 479 kilometers and its endpoints as Metula in the north and Taba in the south.[6] Mako reports a length of 478.7 kilometers and describes the road as running from Metula to Eilat.[11] Its route passes through the Galilee, Jordan Valley, Dead Sea area, and Arava before reaching the Red Sea region.[11][6] Historically divided into five separate sections, the road was joined into a continuous route in the late 1960s.[6] Its central portion is affectionately known as "The Bik'ah."[16]

As of a 2018 report, nearly all of Route 90 remained an undivided two-lane highway. The transport minister announced plans at that time to develop it into a divided highway with two lanes in each direction from Eilat to the Upper Galilee.[17] Roads 25, 31, 1, 505, and 71 were among other undivided roads identified for potential upgrades in the same announcement.[17]

Route 1 connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.[10] Britannica characterizes it as a four-lane, sometimes six-lane, east–west highway.[18] Morning traffic data from 2012–13 recorded an average of about 9,300 cars entering Jerusalem via Route 1 between 6:00 and 10:00, measured between Sha'ar Hagai and Shoresh.[19] Within Jerusalem itself, Road 1 operates as a four- to six-lane divided carriageway running north–south through the city.[20]

Route 443 was built as a parallel alternative to Route 1 for travel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem via Modi'in.[18] Morning counts recorded approximately 6,600 cars entering Jerusalem via Route 443 between Modi'in and Giv'at Ze'ev using 2015 data.[19]

Route 5 — the Trans-Samaria Highway is identified by that name in a 2010 Globes report.[10] A 2006 map record identifies its corridor as Herzliya–Ariel.[13]

Route 9 serves as an east–west link between Israel's major north–south roads. A 2.5-kilometer section opened in 2016, connecting Route 4 south of Hadera eastward to the Bakr Interchange on Route 6.[21] Routes 7, 431, and 531 were similarly grouped as lateral roads linking Routes 2, 4, and 6.[21]

Route 431 is a 22-kilometer road linking Modi'in and Rishon LeZion. It connects with Routes 1, 6, and 20 and opened along its full length in February 2009.[22]

Route 531 links Route 2 at the Kfar Shmaryahu Interchange to Route 6 at the Horeshim Interchange.[3] A reported 14-kilometer section included 11 interchanges and 36 bridges and tunnels.[23]

Route 20 — the Ayalon Freeway is one of the notable named urban arteries in central Israel.[10]

The West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — is served by a road network whose covered routes cumulatively extend approximately 1,600 kilometers and are used by both Israelis and Palestinians.[24] A 2024 State Comptroller report identifies Routes 60 and 90 as prominent north–south corridors in this area and Routes 1, 443, and 5 as prominent east–west routes.[24]

Route 60 runs north–south along the central mountain ridge, from the Wadi Harima area southward through the Beit El and Ramallah areas.[25] The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement identified it as the main north–south road through Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem.[26] Route 90 also traverses portions of Judea and Samaria; the National Library of Israel authority record states that 118.5 kilometers of its route pass through those areas.[27]

The Allon Road, running through the Jordan Valley, was paved as part of early settlement development, with the first Jewish communities in the area built along Route 90 and the Allon Road.[28] A proposal discussed in strategic-planning literature envisioned a Route 80 along this corridor—a new longitudinal road from Gilboa Mountain in the north to Arad in the south, intended to divert north–south truck traffic from congested coastal roads.[5]

Traffic congestion is a persistent challenge across Israel's primary highway network. Routes 2, 4, and 6 along the coastal plain are reported to be congested most hours of the day, and Route 6 itself—built to alleviate coastal congestion—is packed during rush hour.[5] Route 2 was identified as the country's most congested highway in 2013, carrying 87,000 vehicles daily.[12]

Route 1 between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem also experiences frequent congestion, which motivated construction of the parallel Route 443 via Modi'in.[18] A May 2025 Jerusalem Post article stated that Israel had 48 highways and that more roads were continually under construction.[4] The May 2026 Comprehensive Strategic Plan for Transportation treats the intercity road network as a central element of long-term national infrastructure planning and establishes congestion-reduction targets through 2050.[2]