Kiryat Malakhi
Kiryat Malakhi also spelled Kiryat Malahi, Kiryat Malachi, or Qiryat Mal'akhi, is a city in the Southern District of Israel, northeast of Ashkelon. In it had a population of. Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunams.
History
Qastina
Before the establishment of Kiryat Malakhi, the Palestinian village of Qastina stood two kilometers to the west. Qastina's population in 1945 was 890, and its economy was largely agricultural. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on July 9th, 1948, Qastina was assaulted by the Giv'ati Brigade and subsequently depopulated according to recommendations from command.Establishment of Kiryat Malakhi
Kiryat Malakhi was established in 1951 as a ma'abara, to house the masses of Jewish immigrants who 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.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.