It is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv and Gush Dan with Jerusalem via Modi'in.

While technically listed as a regional road, it is, for the most part, a divided, four-lane highway which utilizes some grade separation and interchanges, as well as major at-grade intersections, and thus is not classified as a motorway, even though there is a short motorway section on its western end, connecting it to westbound Highway 1.

Several access roads connecting Palestinian villages with this section of Route 443 were closed in September 2000 due to the outbreak of the Second Intifada.

[1] Frequent fire bomb attacks and fatal shootings on Israeli traffic saw the erection of anti-sniper barricades on parts of the highway adjacent to Palestinian-populated areas.

[6][7] On December 29, 2009 Israel's High Court of Justice upheld the ACRI's petition against an IDF order barring Palestinian traffic.