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Army training areas in Israel cover 8,900 square kilometers (7,500 of them in the Negev region- south of Be’er Sheva). Most of these areas cover a lot of ground, a few hundred square kilometres each. The areas’ purpose is training of all kinds (land, air, shooting ranges) and different bases. Some of these areas are highly active, others can be pretty quiet most of the time.
It is very dangerous to hike and trek through these areas when there is training going on.
Training can be soldiers learning how to navigate (not dangerous) but it can also be training how to shoot or use different explosives. The information as to what is going on in every area and when is not availabe to civilians, which is why you always need to coordinate with the army before entering these areas.
5 Tips on how to trek in Military Training Areas
1. Weekends and Holidays.
Most of the training areas are open for travelers of all kinds on weekends (weekends in Israel are Friday and Saturday). A lot of the training areas are active on weekdays, but not all and not always. With that being said, always call and check before you head out on an adventure in a military training area.
There are some specific training areas (all in the Negev region) that are closed to trekking all year around, except for three Jewish holidays - Sukot, Hannukah and Passover. These holidays differ in their dates because they go by the Jewish calendar. Sukot is usually during early October, Hannuka is around December and Passover around March-April. If you're looking for an adventure in a really secluded isolated area in the desert, I would recommend venturing out during one of these holidays.
2. Tread carefully around remnants
When you're trekking through a military training area you may spot remnants from training (big and small). These can be remnants that exploded, landed in open space and the army left it there. There can be remnants that did not explode and ended up being left behind. For that reason, it can be dangerous to pick up anything that looks army related. When you're trekking in the Golan Heights, or very close to borders there may be minefields in the area. It is highly dangerous to tread inside these areas. They will be fenced and small triangular yellow signs will indiacte that this is a minefield.
3. Check if your trek passes through training areas.
How can you know where training areas are? First of all, each trek that is posted here, that passes through a training area – it will be mentioned in the post.
If you look at the Israel hiking map you will notice a subtle difference in the maps' colors. The map won't mention that these areas are training areas but they will appear a little red and will look darker and have diagonal lines running through them. It will look like this:
Before venturing out to trek independently, check out these maps for military training areas.
Click here to check out a map of the military training areas. Unfortunately, this map with the military areas is only available in Hebrew.
If you want to check if your trek includes passing through a military training area I’d recommend The Israel Hiking Map.
4. Coordinate with the army
Every hike that passes through a military training area should be coordinated with the army. To coordinate call one of these three numbers accordingly:
North District (Haifa and north of it): 04-6979008
Central District (The big middle part, between Haifa and Be’er Sheva): 02-5305511
South District (Be’er Sheva to Eilat): 08-9902928
5. Plan B.
Have a plan B trek stashed away, one that does not pass through a military training area. The army can close the area and the trails for travelers on any given day because of complicated situations that cannot be planned ahead of time. Even if you coordinated the trek and you got an "all clear" from the army, they can still decide to close the area for their own reasons and with almost no notice ahead of time.
I hope this post was helpful and informative for your future treks in Israel. I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts. Contact me here. Or comment below.
*Disclaimer*
It is the responsibility of the users of this website to be prepared for all possible conditions while trekking in Israel. Beware that conditions of trails may change day to day and season to season. All users of this website and its information assume full responsibility for their actions and judgments while trekking. The owner and authors of this site disclaims all liability including that of accident, loss, injury, or any other damage that may be sustained by anyone using the information contained on this website.