November 9, 2025
1.2 Billion NIS to Beersheba for New Light Rail, and Defense R&D Hub
The Negev is in a momentous time. We have a great opportunity to change Israeli society and strengthen the largest region in Israel.
The cabinet on Sunday approved a NIS 1.2 billion ($368 million) development plan for the southern city of Beersheba, the Prime Minister’s Office announced.
The plan will establish a light rail and new arms development center in the southern city and expand the Israel Defense Forces’ presence in the surrounding Negev Desert, among other things.
It follows a transfusion last week of NIS 1 billion ($307 million) in public and private funds to help Beersheba’s Soroka hospital, the Negev’s main medical center, recover from an Iranian missile strike in June and construct a new, armored hospitalization building.
The new plan “includes reinforcement in many areas that are important to the residents of Beersheba,” including “a light rail that will reach the hospital we approved separately,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
“We’re helping with cyber, R&D, livelihood, and it’s of course a reinforcement of the entire Negev… through a mix of government infrastructure and encouragement of the private sector,” said Netanyahu.
The PMO statement said the funds for Beersheba will focus on four main areas: “economic growth, development of transportation infrastructure, improving quality of life and personal security, and education and human capital.”
To support economic growth, the PMO said, some NIS 200 million ($61.3 million) will be invested in a civilian-military R&D center in cooperation with the Defense Ministry’s Weapons Development and Technology Infrastructure Administration (MAFAT), as well as other projects to expand the “ecosystem connecting academia, industry, and the military.”
Transportation in Beersheba will be bolstered by the planning and construction of a new light rail system that will connect the city with suburbs and IDF bases in the Negev, the PMO said, without specifying the system’s cost.
In the area of personal security and welfare, some NIS 500 million ($153.2 million) will go toward a new police station, expanding the IDF Southern Command, and the “development of advanced technological systems for dealing with regional security challenges,” the PMO said.
In addition, the number of psychologists and medical professionals in Beersheba will be increased, and the Wingate Sports Institute, which is located near Netanya in central Israel, will open a branch in Beersheba, according to the PMO.
Meanwhile, it said, some NIS 120 million will go toward formal and informal education, with a focus on STEM fields. Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich said in a statement that the government plan for his city was an “important and significant step.” “The Negev is in a momentous time,” he said. “We have a great opportunity to change Israeli society and strengthen the largest region in Israel.”
While Beersheba is often referred to as the capital of the Negev, which comprises about 55 percent of Israel’s land area, the city of some 220,000 residents has seen its national profile fall in recent years. Once Israel’s fourth-largest city, it now ranks ninth in population size, falling in recent years behind Rishon Lezion, Petah Tikva, Netanya, Ashdod, and Bnei Brak, all located closer to Tel Aviv.
Beersheba is among the poorest large cities in Israel, and consistently ranks in the bottom quarter of the country’s annual quality of life rankings. A development town that quickly absorbed refugees from North Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, it now has one of the highest crime rates in Israel.
Some in Beersheba say that the national government has placed the city’s development lower on its list of national priorities in recent years, especially in light of increased investment in the western Negev and the north of the country due to damage caused in fighting following the Hamas invasion on October 7, 2023.
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