Gilgal

Yafit (Hebrew: יַפִית, lit. 'Beautiful') is an Israeli settlement organized as a moshav shitufi in the West Bank. Located in the Jordan Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 225. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

The Jericho Governorate (Arabic: محافظة أريحا, romanized: Muḥāfaẓat Arīḥā) is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. Its capital is Jericho. The governorate is located along the eastern areas of the West Bank, along the northern Dead Sea and southern Jordan River valley bordering Jordan. It spans west to the mountains east of Ramallah and the eastern slopes of Jerusalem, including the northern reaches of the Judaean Desert. The population of the Jericho Governorate is estimated to be 50,002, including 13,334 Palestinian refugees in the governorate's camps. Ein es-Sultan (also known as "Elisha's Spring") is an oasis in Jericho, one of the main tourist attractions in the area.

Fasayil or Fasa'il (Arabic: فصايل), ancient Phasaelis, is a Palestinian village in the northeastern West Bank, a part of the Jericho Governorate, located 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) northwest of Jericho and about 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Nablus. The closest Palestinian locality is Duma to the west. The village is located 2 km south of the Israeli settlement of Petza'el. According to the 2017 census by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 1,637.

Petza'el (Hebrew: פְּצָאֵל) is a moshav and Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located in the center of the Jordan Valley, 34.5 kilometers from the Green line, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 371. It is named for Phasael, older brother of Herod the Great, for whom he had named a city nearby in ancient times. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli and US governments dispute this.

Tomer (Hebrew: תֹּמֶר, lit. 'Palm Tree') is an Israeli settlement organized as a moshav in the West Bank. Located in the Jordan Valley next to the Palestinian village of Fasayil, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 310. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

A devastating earthquake known in scientific literature as the Earthquake of 749 struck on January 18, 749, in areas of the Umayyad Caliphate, with the epicenter in Galilee. The most severely affected areas were west and east of the Jordan River. The cities of Tiberias, Beit She'an, Pella, Gadara, and Hippos were largely destroyed, while many other cities across the Levant were heavily damaged. The casualties numbered in the tens of thousands. There are firm reasons to believe that there were either two, or a series of, earthquakes between 747 and 749, later conflated for different reasons into one, not least due to the use of different calendars in different sources. It seems probable that the second quake, centered more to the north, which created massive damage mainly in northern Israel and Jordan, did so not so much due to its catastrophic magnitude, but rather as a result of buildings being weakened by the previous, more southerly earthquake.

Gilgal (Hebrew: גלגל) is an Israeli settlement organized as a kibbutz in the West Bank. Located in the Jordan Valley around 16 kilometres north of Jericho with an area of 1,400 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 229. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Netiv HaGdud (Hebrew: נְתִיב הַגְּדוּד, lit. 'Path of the Battalion') is an Israeli settlement organized as a moshav in the West Bank. Located in the Jordan Valley around twenty kilometres north of Jericho, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 214. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Zaretan or Zarethan (Hebrew: צָרְתָן), also known as Zeredathah, is a city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as near the location where the Hebrews crossed the Jordan (Joshua 3:16). In the books of Joshua (3:16, KJV "Zaretan") and 1 Kings (4:12 KJV "Zartanah", 7:46 "Zarthan"), it is called Zarethan, but in 2 Chronicles it is called Zeredathah (4:17, KJV). Zaredathah stood in the Jordan Valley. Nelson Glueck looked for it on the east bank of the river, proposing Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, but some more recent authors place it on the west bank, one theory identifying it with Tell el-Mazar, also spelled Mezar, in Wadi Far'a. Tell el-Mezar is at the site called in Arabic Qerawa, known from antiquity by the name Korea(i) (κορεα[ι]) or Koreous (Kορεους) and located at the foot of Mount Sartabe. According to Hebrew Bible, the bronze castings for the Solomon's Temple were made in the clay grounds between Sukkot and Zaretan. The old identification of the site of the miracle of the Israelites' crossing of the Jordan with the waters stopping their flow at the "city of Adam beside Zaretan" was, according to the Easton's Bible Dictionary (1893 and 1897), presumed to be near Succoth, where the Jabbok flows into the Jordan, about 30 miles upstream from the Israelite camp. There the priests stepped into the water, which then "stood and rose upon an heap", thus creating a 30-mile stretch of dry riverbed for the tribes to use for crossing over to the Promised Land (Joshua 3:16, 17; compare Psalms 104:3).

Alexandreion (Greek), or Alexandrium (Latin), called Sartaba in the Mishna and Talmud and Qarn Sartaba in Arabic, was an ancient hilltop fortress constructed by the Hasmoneans between Scythopolis and Jerusalem on a pointy barren hill towering over the Jordan Valley from the west. It was likely named after Hasmonean king Alexander Jannæus (104–77 BCE).

Na'aran (Hebrew: נערן), formerly known as Niran (נִירָן) is an Israeli settlement organized as a kibbutz in the West Bank. Located in Area C of the Jordan Valley near Jericho, it falls under the jurisdiction of Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 109. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

Bik'at HaYarden Regional Council (Hebrew: מועצה אזורית בקעת הירדן, Mo'atza Azorit Bik'at HaYarden, lit. Jordan Valley Regional Council), also Aravot HaYarden (lit. Jordan Plains), is a regional council covering 21 Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. The municipal territory of the council reaches from Mehola in the north, near the Beit She'an Valley, to Jericho in the south. Most of the settlements are located on the two major north-south roads traversing the council's territory. The Allon Road on the west and Highway 90 on the east. The town of Ma'ale Efraim, a local council, is located within the regional council's borders, but constitutes an independent municipality. The regional council offices are located at the Shlomtzion regional centre. As of 2023, David Elhayani is the head of the council.