The Arava Highway segment is the main link from the resort and port city of Eilat towards the country's centre and, at times, handles a heavy mix of local, tourist and commercial trucking traffic on the two-lane road (one lane in each direction).

"[1] The section of Highway 90 passing through the Jordan Valley was dedicated as Derekh Gandi (Gandhi's Road) after the late Rehavam Zeevi, an Israeli Minister of Tourism who advocated the transfer of 3.3 million Palestinians from Israeli-occupied territories and was so right-wing that he barely remained within the outer perimeter of political acceptability, and was assassinated by Palestinians, who was nicknamed after Mahatma Gandhi.

When travelling south along 90 from the Jordan Valley, the road intersects the eastern end of Route 1 at Beit HaArava Junction.

After the Six-Day War, a section in the northern Dead Sea area was completed, making these roads contiguous.

In October 2007, Israeli Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz announced that the 170 km section of Highway 90 between Arava Junction and Eilat would be renovated, widened and repaved in stages to a four-lane configuration with a physical barrier in the middle and rest stops every 45 kilometres.

[3] On 9 November 2018, Route 90 collapsed above Kidron Stream, 10 km south to Kalya, near Ovnat, due to a flood that created a sinkhole.

[7] Palestinians are often stopped and turned back for not having the correct papers, at the Beit Ha'arava checkpoint leading to the Dead Sea.

[8] Oz Dror, spokesperson for Or Yarok, the Association for Safer Driving in Israel, said in 2018: "Route 90 continues to claim victims and take lives as a result of a shaky infrastructure that is not forgiving of drivers' mistakes.