Kiryat Ekron

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KIRYAT EKRON

KIRYAT EKRON (Heb. קִריַת עֶקְרוֹן), semi-urban community, with municipal council status (since 1963), in the Coastal Plain of Israel, 2 mi. (3 km.) S.E. of Reḥovot. The town's area is 0.8 sq. mi. (2.2 sq. km.). Immigrants from Bulgaria and Iraq were housed soon after the Israeli *War of Independence (1948) in the former Arab village of ʿAqir, abandoned in 1948. The site grew into a modern agglomeration which in 1969 had 4,100 inhabitants, some of whom worked in local plants (e.g., a cotton gin), in farm work, and various enterprises in Reḥovot and elsewhere. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 5,350, increasing to 9,600 in 2002, with four new neighborhoods created in the expanding community.

[Efraim Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]