Shlomi, Israel

Shlomi stands on the slopes of the Western Galilee, approximately 8 miles (12 kilometers) east of Nahariyyah, and covers about 2.3 square miles (6 square kilometers).[1] At one of its northernmost points, the town reaches to within 150 meters of the Lebanese border.[5] Its name derives from the biblical figure Achihud ben Shelomi, who lived in the land of Asher.[1]

The town combines manufacturing, vocational education, and residential development with the demands of life beside the border.[1][4] Its industrial base includes metalworking and medical-equipment plants, while Erez College draws students from across the Western Galilee.[1][4] Border attacks, evacuation, and the restoration of damaged neighborhoods have also shaped its recent public life.[5][6]

Two accounts place Shlomi's establishment in 1950.[3][7] A 2010 report instead gives 1956 and describes the founders as Jewish immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia.[8] Shlomi was built along the southern edge of the former Palestinian village of al-Bassa.[7] It belonged to the development towns established in the 1950s to house refugees from Arab countries and strengthen settlement in sensitive areas.[4] The town received municipal council status in 1960.[1]

Al-Bassa had a substantial population and commercial and religious institutions before Shlomi's establishment.[7] Historical population figures include 572 residents in 1596 and 1,050 at the end of the nineteenth century.[7] In 1944–45, al-Bassa and nearby Khirbat Ma'sub together had 2,950 residents, more than half of them Christians, and covered 29,535 dunams, of which 4,178 had been purchased by Jews.[7] The village contained two mosques, three churches, shrines, more than 20 shops, and an open market.[7]

Al-Bassa was destroyed during the 1948 War of Independence, and its residents were expelled.[3] Nearly all its houses were subsequently destroyed; the moshav of Betzet was established at the site in 1949, and Shlomi was built along the village's southern edge.[7]

Later growth included the absorption of approximately 1,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union and the arrival of young couples who formed the Shlomit neighborhood.[8] In 2010, a new master plan proposed a substantial expansion of housing, industry, commerce, and tourism.[8][9] Interior Minister Eli Yishai signed the plan, which included 400 housing units intended for a religious population, housing for a group of French Jews considering aliyah, and proposed tourism facilities such as a small hotel and guest rooms.[8]

The expansion proposals included 3,000 additional housing units and the development of Highway 899 as the town's principal urban axis.[9] Associated plans called for a transport terminal, shopping center, new industrial zone, and parks.[9] Contemporary projections envisaged a population of 20,000 within ten years or more than 25,000 within a few years; these were planning ambitions rather than completed outcomes.[8][9]

A further urban-renewal plan received final approval in July 2026 for the approximately 18-dunam Ben-Gurion complex.[10] The site contained 12 older residential buildings with 174 apartments lacking standard protected rooms.[10] The approved replacement district provided for about 850 apartments, including small units, with potential for approximately 82 additional housing units.[10] It also included buildings of up to ten stories, approximately 1,800 square meters of commercial and employment space, and public facilities including day-care centers, kindergartens, and synagogues.[10]

On March 12, 2002, terrorists carried out a shooting attack on the Shlomi–Metzuba route, killing six Israeli civilians.[11] Shlomi was also among the northern Israeli towns attacked by Hezbollah during a period of near-daily attacks on northern communities and military outposts that year.[12] The town was subjected to repeated Katyusha and rocket fire through 2006.[11]

On August 10, 2003, Haviv Dadon, a 16-year-old resident of Shlomi, was killed by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell fired from Lebanon; four other people were wounded.[11] A surprise Katyusha barrage on December 27, 2005, targeted Shlomi and Kiryat Shmona.[13] During the Second Lebanon War, rockets struck Shlomi on August 5, 2006, setting brush fires that destroyed several acres of land.[11] On August 13, an elderly Christian man was killed when a rocket struck his home in the town.[11]

In another incident, the remains of two rockets fired from Lebanon overnight were discovered in Shlomi on January 8.[14] One had landed in the yard of a residential building, leaving fragments on its porch, while the remains of the other were found nearby.[14] No one was hurt, although streetlights and trees sustained minor damage.[14] The impacts had gone unnoticed, possibly because of stormy weather; UNIFIL officers subsequently visited the town, collected information, and confirmed that an attack had occurred.[14]

The border also presented challenges unrelated to rocket fire.[15] In mid-June 2020, during a period in which Sudanese migrants were attempting to cross from Lebanon into Israel, one person was captured on Shlomi's outskirts and returned to Lebanon.[15] Other recent crossing attempts had been prevented.[15]

Shlomi sustained property damage during the April 6, 2023 rocket barrage from southern Lebanon.[16] Of the 34 rockets fired toward Israeli territory, Iron Dome intercepted 25, five fell in open areas, and the impact points of four remained under investigation at the time of reporting.[16] No casualties were reported in that account, which described the barrage as the heaviest from Lebanon since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.[16]

On October 8, 2023, Shlomi's approximately 7,500 residents were among roughly 60,000 people evacuated from 32 northern communities.[5] Around 4,000 Shlomi residents were accommodated in Jerusalem hotels, approximately 2,000 in Haifa, and about 1,000 in Tiberias.[5] By February 1, 2024, 130 homes in the town had structural damage, among the highest totals listed for the border communities concerned.[2] Israeli forces later located and destroyed weapons depots, firing positions, and an underground storage facility near border towns including Shlomi.[2]

Over the course of the Israel–Hezbollah war, more than 420 homes and other buildings in Shlomi were damaged by direct hits and blasts.[5] A Hezbollah missile attack in October 2024 severely damaged the public library.[5] Its collection was subsequently housed in a crowded temporary space in the community center while repairs remained pending.[5]

The November 27, 2024 ceasefire was followed by a gradual return of Shlomi's residents.[6] In January 2025, Mayor Gabi Naaman said that only about 20 percent of residents were in town after an evacuation lasting approximately 14 months.[17] He described around 3,000 people leaving in the first days of the war and approximately 1,000 remaining in their homes.[17] His preparations for the return included reopening schools, restoring roads, lighting, gates, and fences, improving security, and assisting small businesses.[17]

By March 2, 2025, roughly 55 percent of residents had returned, and schools were expected to reopen the following week.[18] Businesses were restarting amid damaged homes, cleanup work, and difficulties bringing employees back.[18] Among those returning was 71-year-old Hanna Zacharia, who prepared a simple breakfast at home after nearly a year and a half away.[18]

By August 2025, town officials put the proportion of returned residents at more than 70 percent of an estimated population of 7,500.[6] Building repairs were accompanied by summer activities intended to reconnect the community, including music and street festivals, outdoor films, and enrichment courses.[6] Naaman also announced an ambition to double the town's population to 15,000.[6]

Support for young children included an Early Starters safe space, opened in November 2025 after residents had spent a year and seven months in hotels or rented apartments.[19] Serving children from birth to age five, it operated three days a week and accommodated approximately 35 families at a time.[19] Its design included a small house for a child to play with a parent or grandparent, together with areas for calming, creativity, movement, and shared activities.[19]

Shlomi had a population of 4,930 in 2002, of whom 22 percent were new immigrants.[1] A 2010 account placed its population at approximately 6,000, while the local council spokesperson described growth from around 3,000 to nearly 7,000 over the preceding decade.[8][9] These figures relate to their respective reporting periods rather than to a current census.[1][9]

Later reporting used approximate population figures ranging from 7,500 to 9,000.[5] A January 2024 account described Shlomi as a town of 9,000, while a May 2026 account gave approximately 7,500.[5] A January 2026 Ynetnews report used approximately 8,500.[19] The March 2025 account of residents returning from evacuation likewise used a pre-evacuation population of about 9,000.[18] These estimates should not be combined into a single population total.[5][18]

Metalworking and medical-equipment manufacturing form part of Shlomi's industrial base.[1] Its industrial zone has included factories such as Zoglovek and Hanita Metal.[8] Expansion plans have sought to supplement manufacturing with additional commercial and employment space, tourism accommodation, and new public facilities.[8][10]

Erez College has provided vocational education both for Shlomi and for the wider Western Galilee.[4] In 2015, its courses included mechanical engineering, software design, and food preparation, and it had added a practical engineering program and natural-gas laboratories.[4] By that time, more than 14,000 students had graduated, and 80 percent of graduates were employed.[4]

The college's development was connected to efforts to improve educational and vocational opportunities in the north.[4] Gabriel Naaman, who became mayor in 1999, sought 25 million shekels for the building that housed it.[4] In describing the educational constraints experienced by his own family, he said that among his 13 siblings, only his younger sister had studied beyond high school.[4]

The public library and community center also formed part of the town's cultural infrastructure, with the community center temporarily accommodating the library's collection after its wartime damage.[5] Books and other material associated with Shlomi are represented in a national library catalog entry containing nine books and two miscellaneous items.[20]

The surviving religious buildings of al-Bassa form the focus of the approximately 70-dunam development known as “Old Shlomi.”[21] Approved by the Northern District Planning and Building Commission in 2024, the proposal included rental housing, cafes, commerce, employment space, and improvements to public areas.[21] A pedestrian route was to follow the former village's historic north–south axis.[21]

The plan also addressed the preservation of two mosques, three churches, and several shrines.[21] Council head Gabi Naaman identified the heritage buildings with Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, and Druze communities, and said the project had initially been called the “three religions” complex.[21]

Responsibility for some rocket attacks remained unresolved or disputed.[14][16] No organization claimed the January 8 attack; an assessment linked it to terrorist elements associated with global jihad rather than Hezbollah, while Hezbollah maintained that the rocket was an old one from the Second Lebanon War.[14] For the April 2023 barrage, the IDF spokesman attributed the fire to Hamas, while a Hezbollah source denied responsibility and a Fatah operative denied a connection to the prominent Palestinian organizations in Lebanon.[16] Lebanon's prime minister said an initial army investigation indicated that the operatives were not Lebanese.[16]

Reported Hezbollah invasion plans have also featured Shlomi.[22] A 2011 Jerusalem Center commentary recounted a proposed assignment for Brigade 2 to seize the town, cut Israeli military supply lines, and force reinforcements to approach from the east.[22] A May 2023 commentary revisited that account, linking it to a plan first raised by Hassan Nasrallah on February 16, 2011, and describing its postponement amid the Syrian civil war and Hezbollah's deployment there.[23] These accounts concern reported plans, not an occupation of Shlomi.[22][23]

A separate dispute concerned worship in the surviving churches within Old Shlomi.[7] In February 2026, the Haifa District Court ruled on a joint petition by the Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox bishoprics and permitted prayer and religious worship in two church buildings.[7] The court found that the planning commission had not explained why religious services and ceremonies should be prohibited while cultural and community uses were allowed.[7] Naaman expressed disappointment and said he would examine whether to appeal.[7]