The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved a five-year plan with a roughly 360 million shekel (~$120 million) budget for the development of the city of Eilat and the Eilot Regional Council area.
The project aims to strengthen Eilat’s status as Israel’s southern gateway and as a strategic, economic and tourism hub, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The initiative entails reinforcing healthcare services, expanding public services, promoting new growth engines, developing transportation and tourism infrastructures, improving emergency preparedness, investing in education, and enhancing the quality of life for residents of Eilat and the Eilot region, the statement reads.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted as describing Eilat and the Eilot region as “the southern pearl of the State of Israel.”
He commended the “extraordinary resilience” of the region’s residents “who opened their homes and absorbed tens of thousands of evacuees” during the war that started on Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Gazan terrorists invaded the northwestern Negev.
As a result, tens of thousands of evacuees from the “Gaza Envelope” region were absorbed for an interim period by the southern region’s tourist industry.
Eilat Mayor Eli Lankri hails the government’s plan, thanking the prime minister and the ministers for securing “Eilat’s status as a strategic national asset for years to come,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
