Ofaqim

Ofaqim is a metropolis in the Southern District of Israel, 20 kilometers west of Beersheba. It accomplished municipal repute in 1955. It has an area of 10,000 dunams. In 2017 it had a population of 27,771. Established as a development town in 1955, Ofakim become for many years a main textile production center. Outsourcing of fabric production outside Israel prompted monetary stagnation, and Ofakim suffered high poverty and unemployment prices for many years. Since then, new factories have moved in, and the town is presently undergoing important development.

Ofakim become set up in 1955 as an city center for the agricultural communities inside the vicinity. The first population had been immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia. The populace in 1955 became about 600. The inhabitants to start with lived in huts and tin shacks, however the production of everlasting housing proceeded hastily, and the construction industry become the main source of income during the early years. In past due 1956, after Jewish refugees expelled from Egypt following the Suez Crisis arrived in Israel, 150 Egyptian-Jewish immigrant households, which includes some Karaite Jews, got here to Ofakim.