IDF to relocate 11 bases from central Israel to free up land for real estate

The Defense Ministry, Treasury, and Israel Land Authority on Thursday signed an agreement to relocate 11 military bases out of central Israel, freeing up land for real estate.

The Israel Defense Forces decided in 2011 to move many of its bases from the center of the country to the south, consolidating operations to save money and open up land for development in the center of the country.

So far, mainly training bases have been relocated to the south, although this year will see the first operational units making the move.

The Defense Ministry said the relocation of the 11 additional bases would free up 2.3 square kilometers (0.9 square miles) of land and enable the construction of approximately 19,000 new housing units, around one square kilometer (0.4 square miles) of new commercial and industrial centers, along with 1,000 hotel rooms.

The deal would also see “the establishment of new and modern bases and their adaptation to security challenges and the continuity of the IDF’s operations,” the ministry said. Some of the units are set to move to existing army bases, including the training bases of the Nahal and Givati infantry brigades in the Negev desert.

The bases would be moved gradually over the next decade, according to the Defense Ministry.

The ministry said that it would also establish a joint directorate with the IDF to “examine the feasibility” of relocating the military’s Kirya headquarters out of central Tel Aviv.

The 11 bases that are to be be relocated, mainly to southern Israel, include: The Military Colleges in Glilot, which will be moved to Jerusalem; Technological and Logistics Directorate bases in Tzrifin, Tel Hashomer, Haifa, and Tirat Carmel; the Dotan training base near Pardes Hana; some of the Home Front Command’s headquarters at the Rehavam base in Ramle; and remaining units at the Tzrifin base — located south of Ben Gurion Airport — including compounds belonging to the C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate, Medical Corps, Israeli Air Force, and the the Magal unit, which is in charge of the army’s basic training.

The IDF’s first major move to southern Israel occurred in 2015, when it opened its sprawling Training Campus — known in Hebrew as the Kiryat Hadracha, or more commonly as Ir Habahadim, the “City of Training Bases” — which is located south of the city of Beersheba, near the town of Yeruham.

The Training Campus is home to thousands of soldiers, and by moving the training bases from the center of the country to the Negev, Israel hoped to streamline their operation, free up real estate near the country’s central cities, and breathe life into the south.

In 2022, the military opened two technological training centers in Beersheba, one for pre-army candidates of the Intelligence Directorate and another for recruits in the C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate.

In the coming weeks, the IDF said, it will begin to move units from central Israel to a newly established technological campus in Beersheba, the first time that operational units — rather than training frameworks — are being relocated to the south.

The campus, spread over an area of 150,000 square meters (180,000 square yards), is located adjacent to the Gav-Yam Negev Advanced Technologies park, in the proximity of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

It will serve some 8,000 soldiers and career officers from the C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate, along with a secretive Israeli Air Force technology unit.

The C4I and Cyber Defense Directorate’s training site in Beersheba will be the first unit to move into the new campus, followed by the directorate’s operational units, according to the IDF.

In addition, the IDF’s Southern Command headquarters will be relocating from a historic building in Beersheba’s Old City to the tech campus later in 2026.

Also, later this year, the military is set to inaugurate a new base for the Intelligence Directorate just outside of Beersheba.

That base, sprawling over 2.5 square kilometers (one square mile), would serve some 12,000 soldiers and consolidate most of the military’s intelligence units under one roof.

The directorate’s training base, signals intelligence unit 8200, human intelligence unit 504, research division, and special operations division, would all be moving out of the Glilot base in central Israel and other facilities to the new intelligence base. The military expects to complete the move by 2028.