Ad Halom

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Ad Halom (Hebrew: עד הלום‎) is an area around the eastern entrance to the city of Ashdod, Israel.

1 The battle
2 The monument
3 The bridge
4 The railway station

[edit] The battle

Ad Halom means 'until here' in Hebrew, referring to the northernmost point in Gaza whereto the Egyptian army advanced in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Israel had on may 29th dispatched four Avia S-199 airplanes - one of them piloted by Ezer Weizman - attacking the Egyptians between the then Arab village of Isdud and the bridge over the Lachish River. The Givati brigade blew up the bridge and defended the river bank from a pillbox. The Egyptian forces were later defeated in Operation Yoav.

The pillbox and defensive wall remain as memorials of the events.

[edit] The monument

As part of Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt a monument in the memory of the fallen Egyptian soldiers was established. It was compensation for the abandonment of Israeli obelisks in the Sinai peninsula. The inscriptions on the four edges are in Hebrew, Arabic, English and hieroglyphs.

[edit] The bridge

The Ad Halom Bridge was built in the beginning of the 19th century by Turkish governors above the Lachish River. After its destruction in the Independence War, the bridge was reconstructed and upgraded. Today the four-lane Highway 4 crosses the bridge.

[edit] The railway station

Main article: Ashdod Ad Halom Railway Station

The Israel Railways started to operate a passenger line to Ashdod in the mid 1990's.

The new railway station was established in 2004. In 2005 the line was extended to Ashkelon.

The short distance between the railway and poor planning of the Ad Halom junction on Highway 4 cause traffic jams. A new traffic interchange, intended to solve the problem, is under construction as of 2007.