Beersheba (Hebrew: בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע‎, Be'er Sheva; Greek: Βηρσαβεε; Latin: Bersabee; Arabic: بئر السبع‎, Bi'r as-Sab` (info); Turkish: Birüssebi) is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 186,100.

Beersheba grew in importance in the 19th century, when the Ottoman Turks built a regional police station there. The Battle of Beersheba was part of a wider British offensive in World War I aimed at breaking the Turkish defensive line from Gaza to Beersheba. In 1947, Bir Seb'a (Arabic: بيئر شيبع‎), as it was known, was envisioned as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. When the Arabs rejected the United Nations resolution declaring Israel an independent state, the Egyptian army amassed its forces in Beersheba as a strategic and logistical base. In October 1948, the city was conquered by the Israel Defense Forces.

Beersheba has grown considerably since then. A large portion of the population is made up of Jews who immigrated from Arab countries after 1948, and has been significantly boosted since 1990 by immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union. The city is surrounded by a number of satellite towns including Omer, Lehavim and Meitar, and the Bedouin towns of Rahat, Tel as-Sabi and Lakiya. Located in the Southern District of the country, the city is the district's administrative centre and is home to the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the Soroka Medical Center, and the Israel Sinfonietta Beersheba.