page_title: Eilat
section_title: Modern city
hierarchical_section_title: Eilat / History / Modern city
caption_attribution_description: English: The city of Eilat, Settlements in Israel עברית: ראשית ההתשיבות באילת, Original Image Name:העיר אילת בשנות ה-60, Location:אילת
context_page_description: Eilat, or Umm Al-Rashrash sometimes in Arabic, is Israel's southernmost city with a population of 51,935, a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. The city is considered a tourist destination for domestic and international tourists heading to Israel.
  Eilat is part of the Southern Negev Desert, at the southern end of the Arabah, adjacent to the Egyptian village of Taba to the south, the Jordanian port city of Aqaba to the east, and within sight of Haql, Saudi Arabia, across the gulf to the southeast.
  Eilat's arid desert climate and low humidity are moderated by proximity to a warm sea. Temperatures often exceed 40 °C in summer, and 21 °C in winter, while water temperatures range between 20 and 26 °C. Eilat averages 360 sunny days a year.
context_section_description: The area was designated as part of the Jewish state in the 1947 UN Partition Plan. The abandoned British police post of Umm Al-Rashrash was taken without a fight on March 10, 1949, as part of Operation Uvda. It was formally granted to Israel with the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
  Construction of the city began shortly afterward. The Timna Copper Mines near Timna valley were opened, the Port of Eilat and Eilat Airport were built, the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline laid, and tourism began. The port became vital to the fledgling country's development. In the early 1950s, Eilat was a small and remote town, populated largely by port workers, soldiers, and former prisoners. A concerted effort by the Israeli government to populate Eilat began in 1955 when Jewish immigrant families from Morocco were resettled there. Eilat began to develop rapidly after the Suez Crisis in 1956, with its tourism industry in particular starting to flourish.
  After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Arab countries maintained a state of hostility with Israel, blocking all land routes; Israel's access to and trade with the rest of the world was by air and sea alone. Further, Egypt denied passage through the Suez Canal to Israeli-registered ships or to any ship carrying cargo to or from Israeli ports. This made Eilat and its sea port crucial to Israel's communications, commerce and trade with Africa and Asia, and for oil imports. Without recourse to a port on the Red Sea Israel would have been unable to develop its diplomatic, cultural and trade ties beyond the Mediterranean basin and Europe. This happened in 1956 and again in 1967, when Egypt's closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping effectively blockaded the port of Eilat.
  In 1956, this led to Israel's participation alongside Britain and France in the war against Egypt sparked by the Suez Crisis, while in 1967 90% of Israeli oil passed through the Straits of Tiran. Oil tankers that were due to pass through the straits were delayed. The straits' closure was cited by Israel as an additional casus belli leading to the outbreak of the Six-Day War. Following peace treaties signed with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, Eilat's borders with its neighbors were finally opened.
caption: Eilat in 1963
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