More than one million Israelis flooded the nation’s parks on Thursday, Independence Day, according to the Jewish National Fund.  Half a million people visited parks in the Central District, approximately 400,000 visited parks in the north, and 100,000 visited parks near Jerusalem.

JNF officials said the most popular national parks were Park HaCarmel, Ein Hemed, Gan HaShlosha, and Park HaYarkon.   Also popular were Eshkol Park, the National Park in Ashkelon, and the Ben Shemen forest.