This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Jisr az-Zarqa (Arabic: جِسْر الزَّرْقَاء lit.

The blue bridge, Hebrew: גִ'סְר א-זַּרְקָא; often shortened as Jisr) is an Israeli Arab town on Israel's northern Mediterranean coastal plain.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) the town had a population of 13,689 in 2014,[3] living on 1,500 dunams (1.5 km2) of coastal land.

Other main families are Amash from Qadum in West Bank, Najar from Al Arish or Egypt, Shihab from the Hauran, Twatcha and Um Bashi from Sudan.

[10] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "This is properly speaking a dam rather than a bridge, built across the river so as to form a large pool.

"[11] The SWP further noted: "There are small encampments of Arabs who live permanently in the marshes of the river Zerka.

The embankment was built to block noise from the muezzin in local mosques, celebratory gunfire,[22] and to reduce property crime in surrounding communities.

[23] Residents of Jisr az-Zarqa claim that the national park in the north, the embankment to the south, the highway to the east and the sea to the west, are keeping the town from expanding.

From 20 to 30 buses transport on a daily basis Jisr az-Zarqa residents to jobs, mostly menial, in Haifa, Tel Aviv and elsewhere.

[32] A local resident, Mariam Amash, applied for a new identity card in Hadera in February 2008, using a birth document issued by the Ottoman Empire showing she was born in 1888.