[4] The ruins of a 3,400-year-old Bronze Age citadel were found in the coastal city of Nahariya near the beach on Balfour Street,[5] at a site known to archaeologists as Khirbet Kabarsa.

[7] In 1934, work began to found Nahariya as an agricultural village by a company limited by shares and headed by the agronomist Dr. Selig Eugen Soskin (1873–1959), the civil engineer Joseph Loewy (1885–1949), the financial expert Heinrich Cohn (1895–1976) and the engineer Simon Reich (1883–1941).

After ameliorisation and parcelling, the plots were offered to new German Jewish immigrants who had escaped from Nazi persecution.

While the first settlers lived in huts, the settlement was rapidly developed as houses were built and trees and gardens planted.

[2] After an accumulation of economic and climatic problems the residents soon realized that agriculture was impractical and chose to focus on tourism and the food industry.

Nahariya was turned into a European-style resort town, taking advantage of the natural surroundings and beaches, and new inns were opened.

Nahariya's economy suffered a major blow, as two-thirds of the city's population had to evacuate, with the rest spending weeks in bomb shelters.

The mean monthly wage in 2000 for a salaried worker in the city was ILS 5,736, a real growth of 7.0% over the previous year.

Shaded by the thick greenery of towering eucalyptus trees and lined with numerous shops, boutiques, open-air cafes, restaurants and ice cream parlors, Sderot Ga'aton is Nahariya's main tourist attraction and its central business and entertainment district.

Highway 89 starts at the Nahariya Junction in the city, and connects it with the rest of the Upper Galilee and Safed.

[citation needed] According to Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in 2001 the ethnic makeup of the city was 97.3% Jewish and other non-Arabs, without significant Arab population.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, the hospital was hit by rocket fire that destroyed an outer wall and eight rooms.