Map - Kiryat Shmona (Qiryat Shmona)

Kiryat Shmona (קִרְיַת שְׁמוֹנָה, lit. Town 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 people, including Joseph Trumpeldor, who died in 1920 defending Tel Hai.

In it had a population of, the majority of whom are Jews, particularly of Moroccan descent. Located near the Israel–Lebanon border, Kiryat Shmona is Israel's northernmost city.

The town of Kiryat Shmona was established in 1949 on the site of the former Palestinian village al-Khalisa, whose inhabitants had fled after Safed was taken by the Haganah during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and an attempt by the village to come to an agreement with the Jewish authorities was rejected. Literally The town 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. It had originally been named Kiryat Yosef for Trumpeldor before the name was changed to Kiryat Shmona in June 1950.

Initially the empty houses of Khalisa were used as a transit camp for Jewish immigrants and refugees who worked mainly in farming. It was called Kiryat Yosef after Joseph Trumpeldor. The first residents were fourteen Yemenite Jews who arrived on July 18, 1949, and were followed by more Yemenite Jews a month later. By July 1951, the population had grown to nearly 4,000. Relationships with nearby kibbutzim were often strained.

In 1953, Kiryat Shmona was declared a development town. In the first few years, growth was driven by the arrival of immigrants from Yemen and Romania, but later on, waves of immigrants from North Africa, in particular from Morocco, arrived. The city was built without a master plan, but rather neighborhood by neighborhood as waves of immigrants arrived.

Kiryat Shmona's location close to the Lebanon 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. They killed eighteen residents of an apartment building, including many children, before being killed in an exchange of fire at the complex, which became known as the Kiryat Shmona massacre.

The city continued to be the target of attacks, including Katyusha rocket attacks by the PLO in July 1981, a Katyusha rocket attack by the PLO in March 1986 (killing a teacher and injuring four students and one adult), and further Katyusha rocket attacks by Hezbollah during 1996's Operation Grapes of Wrath.

In spite of attacks from Lebanon, the population grew from 11,800 in 1972 to 15,100 in 1983.

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.