Ofakim is a city in the Southern District of Israel, 20 kilometers west of Beersheba. It achieved municipal status in 1955. It has an area of 10,000 dunams. In it had a population of.Established as a development town in 1955, Ofakim was for many years a major textile manufacturing center. Outsourcing of textile manufacturing outside Israel caused economic stagnation, and Ofakim suffered high poverty and unemployment rates for many years. Since then, new factories have moved in, and the city is currently undergoing major development.HistoryOfakim was established in 1955 as an urban center for the rural communities in the area. The first inhabitants were immigrants from Morocco and Tunisia. The population in 1955 was about 600. The inhabitants initially lived in huts and tin shacks, but the construction of permanent housing proceeded rapidly, and the construction industry was the main source of income during the early years. In late 1956, after Jewish refugees expelled from Egypt following the Suez Crisis arrived in Israel, 150 Egyptian-Jewish immigrant families, including some Karaite Jews, came to Ofakim. In the following years, 170 Jewish families from Iran arrived, as did additional immigrants from India and Romania. In 1958, Ofakim was granted local council status.