rt of a wider Plan Dalet. Joseph Weitz, a leading Yishuv figure, wrote in his diary on May 4, 1948 that, "The Beit Shean Valley is the gate for our state in the Galilee...[I]ts clearing is the need of the hour."
Beisan fell to the Jewish militias three days before the end of British Mandate Palestine. After Israel's Declaration of Independence in May 1948, during intense shelling by Syrian border units, the Arab inhabitants, followed by the recapture of the valley by the Haganah, fled across the Jordan River. The property and buildings abandoned after the conflict were then held by the state of Israel. Most Arab Christians relocated to Nazareth. A ma'abarah (refugee camp) inhabited mainly by North African immigrants was erected in Beit She'an, and it later became a development town.
In 1999, Beit She'an was incorporated as a city. Geographically, it lies in the middle of the Beit She'an Valley Regional Council.
Beit She'an was the hometown and political power base of David Levy, a prominent figure in Israeli politics
