# Kiryat Malakhi

Kiryat Malakhi (Hebrew: קריית מלאכי, lit. 'City of Angels') also spelled Kiryat Malahi, Kiryat Malachi, or Qiryat Mal'akhi, is a city in the Southern District of Israel, 17 kilometres (11 mi) northeast of Ashkelon. In 2022 it had a population of 25,705. Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunams (~4.6 km$^2$).

## History
### Qastina

Before the establishment of Kiryat Malakhi, the Palestinian village of Qastina stood at this location. Qastina's population in 1945 was 890, and its economy was largely agricultural, with its people growing citrus groves and cereals. Furthermore, an elementary school for boys was established in Qastina in 1936, and by 1945 had an enrollment of 145 students. Students from the nearby Palestinian village of Tall al-Turmus also used to attend this school. Qastina also had one mosque.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on July 9th, 1948, Qastina was assaulted by the Giv'ati Brigade. Today, only debris remains where the village once stood.

### Establishment of Kiryat Malakhi

Kiryat Malakhi was established in 1951 as a ma'abara (lit. 'temporary residential'), to house the masses of Jewish settlers who have arrived during the early years of the newly established State of Israel, many of them part of the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries. The name was chosen to honor the Jewish community of Los Angeles, which contributed much of the funding for its establishment. It has been one of several development towns of the Negev desert, at that time being.
Moshe Katsav, later Israel's 8th president, was elected mayor in 1969, at the age of 24. His younger brother Lior Katsav has also been a mayor of Kiryat Malakhi; whilst Yosef Vanunu held the post from 1981 until the 1990s. The current mayor is Eliyahu "Lalo" Zohar.
On 15 November 2012 missile attacks were launched by Palestinian militant groups from the Gaza Strip as a response to Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense. These attacks resulted in the deaths of three residents of the city.

## Demographics

The arrival of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union as well as from Ethiopia in a few previous decades, has increased the population of Kiryat Malakhi by 40 percent. Some 22,000 people now reside in the city. In January 2012, Israeli television publicized a case of a seller in the municipality creating a restrictive covenant barring the sale or lease of property to Ethiopian Jews. The case led to public outcry and demonstrations of hundreds of people, and caused the Association for Civil Rights in Israel to call on the Registrar of Real Estate to revoke the licence of real estate agents who practice such discrimination. At the south end of the city, a Chabad neighborhood, Nachalat Har Chabad, is home to 2800 residents. A expansion of that neighborhood called Karmei HaNadiv is developing, with many high-rises being built to accommodate the growing Chabad population.

## Sports

There is a 1,000-seat football (soccer) stadium named Teddy Arena, being held as the home-grounds for the local association club of Maccabi Kiryat Malakhi.

## Transportation

The city's main transportation hub is the Malakhi Junction (also known as Qastina).

## Education

According to CBS, there are 15 schools and 4,909 students in the city. They are spread out as 10 elementary schools and 2,867 elementary school students, and 2 high schools and 2,042 high school students.

## Twin towns – sister cities

Kiryat Malakhi is twinned with:
* Piatra Neamț, Romania
* Rueil-Malmaison, France (since 1985)
* Golmud, China