Wadi Ara is part of the ancient historical route
Via Maris, connecting what is now the
Israeli coastal plain with the
Jezreel Valley and, in a wider sense,
Egypt in the west with
Syria and
Mesopotamia in the east.
Chalcolithic The site of
En Esur has a main occupational level from the Early
Chalcolithic period, when a large village with a temple stood at the well-watered site.
Early Bronze Age Also at
En Esur, a walled city covered the site during the Early Bronze Age, an exceptionally early and populous urban centre for the Southern Levant. Thutmose marched his troops through the coastal plain as far as
Jamnia, then inland to Yehem, a small city near Megiddo. A ridge of mountains jutting inland from
Mount Carmel stood between Thutmose and Megiddo, and he had three potential routes to take.
1948-49 war Captured by
Iraqi
Arab League forces under the command of Iraqi officer, Captain
Khaleel Jassim, in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, it was ceded to Israel in exchange for territory south of
Hebron in the
1949 Israel-Jordan armistice agreement. In March 1949, as the Jordanian army replaced the Iraqi forces, three Israeli brigades moved into positions in Operation
Shin-Tav-Shin. Following the operation, Israel renegotiated the ceasefire line in the Wadi Ara area of the Northern West Bank in an agreement reached on 23 March 1949 and incorporated into the General Armistice Agreement. These 15 villages were ceded to Israel. ==Educational institutions==