Hamama

Be'er Ganim (Hebrew: באר גנים, lit. Gardens Well) is a community settlement in southern Israel. It falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council and had a population of 1,966 in 2021.

The Ashkelon railway station is a railway station that is located in Ashkelon, Israel. It is the southern terminus of the Binyamina–Tel Aviv–Ashkelon and the Ra'anana-Rishon LeZion-Ashkelon suburban lines. Previously, Majdal railway station, built by the British forces during World War I, has existed at the site, and since 1920, the station served regular passenger trains between El Kantara, Egypt and Haifa. During 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the connection to Gaza Strip and Egypt was severed, but freight service on the Lod–Ashkelon railway continued.In 2002 it was decided to double-track the Ashdod–Ashkelon railway and recommence the passenger service to Ashkelon. Some of the remains of the old British station were demolished as part of preparing the site. The new Ashkelon passenger station was opened in 2005. Later, a new railway north of Ashkelon was constructed between Rishon LeZion and Ashdod Ad Halom railway station. This new line was inaugurated on 4 August 2013 and significantly shortened the travel time from Ashdod and Ashkelon to Tel Aviv to 35 and 45 minutes respectively. The railway line south of the station was extended to Beersheba beginning in 2006, which enabled rail service to the towns of Sderot, Ofakim and Netivot in the northern Negev. The line was completed in 2015. In late 2021 an NIS 15 million renovation project at the station was completed. The works included preservation of some of the station's original early 20th-century structures. At the same time, the station also underwent electrification. The station complex also houses a large electric multiple unit train maintenance depot that was completed in 2021.

Kfar Silver (Hebrew: כְּפַר סִילְבֶר, lit. 'Silver Village') is a youth village in southern Israel. Located near Ashkelon, the village falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 406.

Shikma Prison (Hebrew: בית סוהר שקמה) is an Israeli prison located in Ashkelon.There are many Palestinian prisoners there including the engineer Dirar Abu Sisi who was kidnapped in Ukraine in February 2011. Among the former prisoners is Israeli scientist Mordechai Vanunu.

Nizahon Restaurant (מסעדת הניצחון) was a Romanian grill in Ashkelon and one of Israel's oldest restaurants. The restaurant did not have kashrut certification and was open on Shabbat.

Ashkelon Academic College (Hebrew: המכללה האקדמית אשקלון, HaMiklala HaAkademit Ashkelon) is a public college in Ashkelon, Israel. The college has two faculties, the School of Economics and Social Work, for management, logistics, banking, and accounting, in which undergraduate and graduate studies take place, as well as the School of Health Sciences, for undergraduate studies in nutrition, nursing, and public health. The college provides programs in undergraduate studies in the fields of politics and government, computer science, sociology and anthropology, psychology, criminology, Land of Israel studies, tourism and multidisciplinary studies in the social sciences.

The Sala Stadium (Hebrew: אצטדיון סלה) is a sports stadium in Ashkelon, Israel. The stadium has a 5,250 capacity, and is the home ground of Maccabi Ashkelon. On 29 December 2008, shortly before a training session, the stadium was hit by a Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. The rocket landed in the penalty area.

The Ashkelon Sport Arena (Hebrew: היכל הספורט העירוני אשקלון) is an indoor sporting arena located in Ashkelon, Israel. The arena opened in 1999 and is home to the Elitzur Eito Ashkelon Basketball Club. The arena has a capacity of 3,000 permanent seats.

Ashkelon or Ashqelon ( ASH-kə-lon; Hebrew: אַשְׁקְלוֹן, romanized: ʾAšqəlōn, IPA: [ʔaʃkeˈlon] ; Arabic: عَسْقَلَان, romanized: ʿAsqalān) is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, 50 kilometres (30 mi) south of Tel Aviv, and 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The modern city is named after the ancient seaport of Ascalon, which was destroyed in 1270 and whose remains are on the southwestern edge of the modern metropolis. The Israeli city, first known as Migdal, was founded in 1949 approximately 4 km inland from ancient Ascalon at the Palestinian town of al-Majdal (Arabic: الْمِجْدَل, romanized: al-Mijdal; Hebrew: אֵל־מִגְ׳דַּל, romanized: ʾĒl-Mīǧdal). Its inhabitants had been exclusively Muslims and Christians and the area had been allocated to the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; on the eve of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the inhabitants numbered 10,000 and in October 1948, the city accommodated thousands more Palestinian refugees from nearby villages. The town was conquered by Israeli forces on 5 November 1948, by which time much of the Arab population had fled, leaving some 2,700 inhabitants, of whom 500 were deported by Israeli soldiers in December 1948 and most of the rest were deported by 1950. Today, the city's population is almost entirely Jewish. Migdal, as it was called in Hebrew, was initially repopulated by Jewish immigrants and demobilized soldiers. It was subsequently renamed multiple times, first as Migdal Gaza, Migdal Gad and Migdal Ashkelon, until in 1953 the coastal neighborhood of Afridar was incorporated and the name Ashkelon was adopted for the combined town. By 1961, Ashkelon was ranked 18th among Israeli urban centers with a population of 24,000. In 2022 the population of Ashkelon was 153,138, making it the third-largest city in Israel's Southern District.

Ashkelon Marina Breakwater Light is a lighthouse in Ashkelon, Israel. It is located at the end of the main breakwater of the Ashkelon Marina. The site is accessible by walking the pier, but the tower is closed to the public.

The Ashkelon Subdistrict is the northern of the two sub-districts in Israel's Southern District. Its population is more than half a million. It is an important region for manufacturing including electricity production and water desalination, agriculture, transportation, tourism, and trade. Ashdod is the largest city in the subdistrict. The capital of the subdistrict, Ashkelon, is its second-largest city. Both are on the Mediterranean Sea. The other cities in the subdistrict, Kiryat Malakhi, Kiryat Gat, and Sderot, are smaller and located inland. The subdistrict borders clockwise with the Rehovot Subdistrict in the north, the Jerusalem District and the West Bank in the east, the Beersheba Subdistrict in the south, and the Gaza Strip and the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

The Battle of Ascalon took place on 12 August 1099 shortly after the capture of Jerusalem, and is often considered the last action of the First Crusade. The crusader army led by Godfrey of Bouillon defeated and drove off a Fatimid army. The Crusaders completed their primary objective of capturing Jerusalem on 15 July 1099. In early August, they learned of the approach of a 20,000-strong Fatimid army under vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah. Under Godfrey's command the 10,200-strong Crusader army took the offensive, leaving the city on 10 August to risk everything on a great battle against the approaching Muslims. The Crusaders marched barefoot, carrying the relic of the True Cross with them, accompanied by patriarch Arnulf of Chocques. The army marched south from Jerusalem, approaching the vicinity of Ascalon on the 11th and capturing Egyptian spies who revealed al-Afdal's dispositions and strength. (The distance from Jerusalem to Ascalon is about 77 km (48 mi)) At dawn on 12 August, the Crusader army launched a surprise attack on the Fatimid army still sleeping in its camp outside the defensive walls of Ascalon. The Fatimids had failed to post enough guards, leaving only a part of their army capable of fighting. The Crusaders quickly defeated the half-ready Fatimid infantry, while the Fatimid cavalry had little contribution in the fighting. The battle ended in less than an hour. The Crusader knights reached the center of the camp, capturing the vizier's standard and personal baggage, including his sword. Some Fatimids fled into the trees and were killed by Crusader arrows and lances, while others begged for mercy at the Crusaders' feet and were butchered en masse. The terrified vizier fled by ship to Egypt, leaving the Crusaders to kill any survivors and gather up a vast amount of loot. Ibn al-Qalanisi estimated 12,700 Fatimid dead, and mentioned that all Muslims with the means to do so chose to emigrate. The first Muslim attempt to recapture Jerusalem ended in complete defeat, but Godfrey failed to exploit the victory and take Ascalon, whose Fatimid garrison was willing to surrender only to Raymond of Toulouse, a condition Godfrey would not accept. The Fatimid base in Ascalon remained a thorn in the side of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and would not fall until the siege of Ascalon of 1153.