Ashkelon (Hebrew: אַשְׁקְלוֹן; Tiberian Hebrew ʾAšqəlôn; Arabic: عسقلان ʿAsqalān; Latin: Ascalon) is a city in the western Negev, in the South District of Israel, which was formed out of the Arab town of al-Majdal in the 1950s. It is also the name of an ancient Philistine seaport on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea just north of Gaza.