Beersheba (בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, Be'er Sheva, Arabic: بئر السبع, Bi'r as-Sabi, Birüssebi) is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 186,100. Located in the Southern District of the country, the city is the district's administrative centre and is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Soroka Medical Center, and the Israel Sinfonietta Beersheba.
Beersheba gained importance in the 19th century, when the Ottoman Turks built a regional police station there. This quickly expanded into a small town, and became a strategic point in World War I. Then a predominantly Arab town known as Bir Seb'a (Arabic: بيئر شيبع), it was allocated to the putative Arab state in the 1947 Partition Plan. Soon after the Arab rejection of the United Nations resolution, the surrounding Arab countries invaded Israel following its declaration of independence (May 1948) and Beersheba became an important strategic and logistical point for the Egyptian army. The city was conquered by the Israel Defense Forces on 21 October 1948, and has remained an Israeli city since.
Beersheba has grown considerably since 1948. A large portion of the population is made up of Jews who immigrated from Arab countries after 1948, and has been significantly boosted since 1990 by immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. The city is surrounded by a number of satellite towns including Omer, Lehavim and Meitar, and the Bedouin towns of Rahat, Tel as-Sabi and Lakiya.
