Highway 60 or (, ''Kvish Shishim''; ''at-Tariq as-Sarie Sitiin'') is a south–north intercity road in
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
and the
Palestinian West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
that stretches from
Beersheba
Beersheba ( / ; ), officially Be'er-Sheva, is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the centre of the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in Israel, the eighth-most p ...
to
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...
.
Route and specifics
The Highway in large part follows the same general route as the so-called
biblical
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...
"
Way of the Patriarchs" (), since it also follows the central
watershed of the hill country, which figures prominently in the travels of the
Biblical patriarchs.
From its junction with
Highway 40 in Beersheba to the city's outskirts, Route 60 is a
dual carriageway with
at-grade intersection
An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections ar ...
s. While it continues on to serve as the main north–south artery between
Israeli settlements and
Palestinian communities such as the cities of
Hebron
Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
and
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
in the southern West Bank, it is a two-lane, shoulderless road until past Hebron at
Gush Etzion Junction, where it regains its lane-separation until short of Bethlehem, that section having recently been widened. Upon entering Jerusalem, its lanes are again mostly separated as it serves as a central artery in the city center. In the northern quarters it becomes a
separate grade freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
with multiple interchanges, from where it continues through the central and northern West Bank as a two-lane road, not being divided again until the stretch between Afula and its terminus in downtown Nazareth.
Due to it running through a mainly rural setting, many of the junctions along its route feature
hitchhiking posts called ''
trempiadas''.
Access, bypass roads
At present, the highway is non-contiguous pending final status agreement between
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
and the
Palestinians
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...
. The section through
Jenin is closed to yellow (Israeli) license plates. The sections north and south of the West Bank and through Jerusalem are closed to green (Palestinian Authority) license plates.
Before the
Oslo Accords, Palestinians lived under Israeli authority and could travel freely on the road. After the
Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...
assumed control over various cities, Israel established
checkpoints on areas of the route which entered Palestinian jurisdiction. New routes of highway were paved so that Israeli traffic could bypass the Palestinian towns in order to reduce friction. These so-called
bypass roads, while a contentious issue in their own right due to the varying levels of limitation on Palestinian access, also served as an improvement to the road which allowed traffic to flow around, rather than through the heart of congested urban areas.
Tunnels Highway
One of the more sophisticated segments – built on lands east of the
Green line set in 1967 – is the stretch known as the Tunnels Highway. Designed by a French firm , the route leads from southern Jerusalem to the Jewish settlements area of
Gush Etzion, bypasses Bethlehem and then heading to the northwest using a pair of tunnels; the northern tunnel, called the
Gilo tunnel because it is adjacent to the Gilo neighborhood/Settlement, is 270 metres long. The second tunnel, called the
Refaim tunnel based on the nearby
Refaim Valley and passing under
Har Gilo and
Beit Jala, is 900 m long, making it the longest road tunnel in the West Bank. The tunnels are linked by the West Bank's highest and longest bridge, crossing the
Walaja Valley.
In 2024, the project to build a second bridge and tunnel parallel to the first, thus expanding the road to two lanes in each direction, was completed.
In Jerusalem
Within Jerusalem, Highway 60, known by the municipality as the
Talpiot–
Atarot Axis and often referred to by its official Jerusalem Municipality designation, "Road 1" (not to be confused with
National Highway 1), is the central north–south artery running through the
city centre
A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...
. The Jerusalem portion of the road begins at the Tunnels Road (the northern end of the Bethlehem Bypass), passes the edges of
Gilo and
Beit Safafa, joins the "Hebron Road" () from Bethlehem and continues northward through
Talpiot. This section is divided with multiple lanes and has undergone recent construction to include dedicated
bus lanes and infrastructure for its eventual conversion into a line of the
Jerusalem Light Rail.
At its junction with David Remez Street, in the
Abu Tor neighborhood, Route 60 narrows and descends into the
Hinnom Valley, curving around
Sultan's Pool
The Sultan's Pool (; ) is an ancient water basin to the west side of Mount Zion, Jerusalem.
The Sultan's Pool was part of the water supply network for Jerusalem from the late Second Temple period to the late Ottoman Empire, Ottoman period. Today, ...
directly under
Mount Zion
Mount Zion (, ''Har Ṣīyyōn''; , ''Jabal Sahyoun'') is a hill in Jerusalem, located just outside the walls of the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City to the south. The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew Bible first for the City of David ( ...
. It then ascends as Hativat Yerushalayim Street to intersect with the
Jaffa Gate entrance to the
Old City of Jerusalem.
From there it runs underneath the Jaffa Gate Square, briefly
overlaps Jaffa Road and then enters "HaTsanhanim Tunnel" passing underneath Jerusalem's
New Gate. It emerges just west of the
Damascus Gate
The Damascus Gate is one of the main Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side and connects to a highway leading out to Nablus, which in the Hebrew Bible was called Shechem or Sichem, and from the ...
intersecting with
Street of the Prophets, again becoming a divided street. This section of the road includes tracks for the now completed Jerusalem Light Rail's red line.
Briefly called
Heil HaHandassa Boulevard and then Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard, it continues northward passing
Meah Shearim, the
American Colony, and
French Hill, until
Meinertzhagen junction, where it becomes a
separate grade freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
. As a freeway, it
interchanges with
Highway 1 at Sha'ar Mizrah. The freeway then bypasses
Shuafat with one of the longest and highest bridges in the country, feeding into
Beit Hanina and
Pisgat Ze'ev with two more interchanges. It continues as an at-grade road intersecting with Neve Yaakov Blvd. and finally exits the city near
Kalandia.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Route 60 was a central scene of violence during the
al-Aqsa Intifada, which was in part defined by the thousands of shooting attacks on its Israeli traffic, including hundreds of casualties. The
Israeli Army, in response, has fortified various sections with anti-sniper walls and had established checkpoints along the route. The Tunnels Highway came under particularly heavy assault during
the shooting on Gilo neighborhood since it lies between
Gilo and
Beit Jala. The concrete barriers employed on other dangerous stretches of road were too heavy to be supported by the bridge, and so a barrier of
bulletproof composite armour
Composite armour is a type of vehicle armour consisting of layers of different materials such as metals, plastics, ceramics or air. Most composite armours are lighter than their all-metal equivalent, but instead occupy a larger volume for the sa ...
similar to that employed on
Merkava tanks was constructed.
The road was also the site of terrorist attacks in June,
August 2010,
[On the eve of the summit meeting in Washington to relaunch the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, a shooting attack was carried out targeting an Israeli vehicle southeast of Hebron. Four Israeli civilians were killed. Hamas' military wing claimed responsibility; the Palestinian Authority condemned the attack]
, September 1, 2010, Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
Janine Zacharia and Samuel Sockol, September 1, 2010, ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''. and
June 2015.
Junctions and interchanges
See also
*
List of highways in Israel
*
Nablus Road, old road, now city street, once connecting Jerusalem's Old City (Damascus Gate) to Nablus
*
Way of the Patriarchs, the main north–south historical route in the area
References & Notes
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:60
Roads in Israel
Limited-access roads in Israel
Roads in Israeli-occupied territories
Streets in Jerusalem