'City of the Eight') is a city in the Northern District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanese border.

The city was named after the eight Jews, including Joseph Trumpeldor, who died in 1920 in the Battle of Tel Hai.

[3] Literally the City of the Eight, Kiryat Shmona was named after eight Jewish militiamen, commanded by Joseph Trumpeldor, who had fallen in the 1920 Battle of Tel Hai during the Franco-Syrian War adjacent to the new town.

[4] Initially the empty houses of Al-Khalisa were used as a transit camp for Jewish immigrants and refugees who worked mainly in farming.

Kiryat Shmona's location in close proximity to the Lebanese border makes it a target for rocket fire cross-border attacks.

On April 11, 1974, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, sent three members across the border from Lebanon to Kiryat Shmona.

[11] On 24/25 June 1999 two residents were killed when Hezbollah fired a salvo of Katyusha rockets into the centre of Kiryat Shimona.

They were the first fatalities in a cross border attack since 1995 and came during massive Israeli air strikes across Lebanon which caused $52 million damage and killed eleven Lebanese.

In 2000–2006, the locals enjoyed relative peace but suffered from loud explosions every few weeks because of Hezbollah anti-aircraft cannons fired at IAF planes flying across the Israeli-Lebanese border.

In the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, the city was evacuated due to attacks by Hezbollah and Palestinian factions from Southern Lebanon.

Nearly all of Kiryat Shmona's inhabitants were evacuated to other areas of Israel as part of the conflict, with about 2,000 residents remaining in the city as of July 2024.

[21] Kiryat Shmona has a mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa)[22] with hot, dry summers and mildly cool and rainy winters.

The college offers academic and continuing education programs for approximately 4,500 students, 70 percent of whom come from outside the Galilee.

Kiryat Shmona has an urgent care clinic with an emergency room that serves the city and nearby communities.

The economy is based on consumer-oriented products such as communications, information technology, and electronics as well as agriculture on the surrounding lands and tourism.

The highway also serves an important tourist function, as it provides access for Israelis to winter sport facilities at the slopes of Mount Hermon.

Egged Bus Company, along with Nateev Express, connect Kiryat Shmona to the surrounding Jewish and Arab localities.

Egged Bus Company also provides long-distance services to cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the center of the country.

The rail line will connect Kiryat Shmona to Safed (Tzahar), Karmiel, Haifa, and further south to the economic and population core of the Country at Gush Dan (Greater Tel Aviv).

However, critics state that the location of the station will force the residents to either continue to rely on their private vehicles, or to the inconvenience of waiting for urban bus lines as opposed to simply walking.