Khan Yunis
| Khan Yunis | |||
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| Other transcription(s) | |||
| • Arabic | خان يونس | ||
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 Khan Yunis
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| Coordinates: 31°20′39.55″N 34°18′11.13″E / 31.3443194°N 34.3030917°ECoordinates: 31°20′39.55″N 34°18′11.13″E / 31.3443194°N 34.3030917°E | |||
| Governorate | Khan Yunis | ||
| Founded | 1917 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | City | ||
| • Head of Municipality | Muhammad Jawad Abd Al-Khaliq Al-Farra | ||
| Area | |||
| • Jurisdiction | 54,560 dunams (54.56 km2 / 21.1 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| • Jurisdiction | 179,900 | ||
| Name meaning | "Jonah's Inn" | ||
| Website | www.khanyounis.mun.ps | ||
Khan Yunis - often spelt Khan Younis or Khan Yunnis - (Arabic: خان يونس; literally Jonah's Caravanserai) is a city and adjacent refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the city, its refugee camp, and its immediate surroundings had a total population of 180,000 in 2006.[1] Although Khan Yunis lies only 4 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea the climate of Khan Yunis is semi-arid with temperature reaching high to 30 degree C in summer and decreasing high at 10 degree C in winter region with an annual rainfall of approximately 260 mm.
The Constituency of Khan Yunis has five members on the Palestinian Legislative Council. Following the Palestinian legislative election, 2006, there were three Hamas members, including Yunis al-Astal; and two Fatah members, including Mohammed Dahlan.
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[edit] History
Before the 14th century, Khan Yunis was a village known as Salqah.[2] To protect caravans, pilgrims and travelers a khan was constructed there by Yunus al-Nûzûri in 789 Hijri / 1387 CE according to an inscription on its main entrance, accounting for the new name of the growing town.[2] (Yunis Ibn Abdallah an-Nawruzi ad-Dawadar was the executive Secretary, one of the high ranking officials of Sultan Barquq and the first Circassian Mamluk Sultan.)[citation needed] The town became an important center for trade and its weekly Thursday market drew traders from neighboring regions.[citation needed] The khan served as resting stop for couriers of the barid, the Mamluk postal network in Palestine and Syria.
The Khan Yunis refugee camp, founded in 1948, initially held 35,000 Palestinian Arabs. By mid-2008 68,324 refugees and their descendants there were registered with UNRWA.[3]
[edit] 1955 Elkayam Operation
During the night of 31 August 1955 three Israeli paratroop companies made a retaliatory raid[4](Mivtza Elkayam) on the British built Tegart fort in Khan Yunis from where attacks had been carried out against Israelis. The police station, a petrol station and several buildings in the village of Abassan were destroyed, as well as railway tracks and telegraph poles. In heavy fighting, Seventy-two Egyptian soldiers were killed. One Israeli soldier was killed and 17 were wounded. The operation led to a ceasefire on September 4, forcing Nasser and the Egyptian government to halt the Palestinian fedayeen operations against Israel.[5] One of the mechanized companies was commanded by Rafael Eitan.[4][6]
[edit] 1956 Suez War
Before the Suez War, Khan Yunis was occupied by Egypt. After a fierce firefight, the Sherman tanks of the IDF 37th Armored Brigade broke through the heavily fortified lines outside of Khan Yunis held by the 86th Palestinian Brigade.[7] It was the only site in the Gaza strip where the Egyptian army put up any resistance to the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but it surrendered on 3 November 1956. According to Footnotes in Gaza, a comic book by Joe Sacco, The Israeli Army rounded up residents of the town and the neighbouring refugee camp and shot them on the streets and in their homes.[8] Sacco said that the book generally adopts the Palestinian perspective.[9]
There are conflicting reports of what happened. Israel said that the Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces were still facing armed resistance, while the Palestinians said all resistance had ceased by then.[9]
The killings were reported to the UN General Assembly on 15 December 1956 by the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Henry Labouisse, who reported from "trustworthy sources" that 275 people were killed in the massacre of which 140 were refugees and 135 local residents.[10][11]
[edit] 1967 Six Day War
In 1967, during the Six Day War Israel occupied Khan Yunis again.
[edit] Second Intifada
Khan Yunis was the site of Israeli helicopter attacks in August 2001 and October 2002 that left several civilians killed, hundreds wounded and civilian buildings within the vicinity destroyed. It is known as a stronghold of Hamas which is recognised as a terrorist group by many countries.[12]
The northern part of Khan Yunis overlooks the Kissufim junction — formerly one of the main roads for Israeli traffic to Gush Katif settlement. Buildings there had often been used by militants as sniping posts and mortar bases to shoot at Israeli settlements and soldiers.
From Khan Yunis' northern buildings, two Islamic militants killed an Israeli civilian Tali Hatuel on May 2, 2004, forcing her and her four daughters off the road and shooting them at close range. The next week, her memorial service was attacked at the same site. One building was also used as cover for an explosive-laden tunnel, which blew up an Israeli (IDF) occupation outpost on June 27 of that year. After each attack, the Israeli Defence Forces bulldozed some of the structures used by the militants.
On December 16, 2004, the Israel Defense Forces raided the town with armoured bulldozers and tanks in order to stop mortar shelling of Israeli towns. In the six weeks before the operation about 80 mortar shells and Qassam rockets had hit the Gush Katif settlement. Khan Yunis have been the target of frequent raids by the Israeli defence forces, and heavy battles have ensued in the area. In 2005, Israel attempted to isolate the area,but they didn't succeed because of Hamas resistance. In 2006 Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip. Since Israel's 2005 Gaza Disengagement, over 2,000 Qassam rockets have been launched from Khan Yunis into Israel, mostly to the Southern Israeli city of Sderot. In January 2009, members of the Shurrab family were killed by Israeli Defence Force members during a "lull" in fighting in the war in Gaza.
[edit] International relations
[edit] Twin towns — Sister cities
Khan Yunis is twinned with the following cities:
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Projected Mid -Year Population for Khan Yunis Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006
- ^ a b Sharon, 1997, p. 229.
- ^ Refugee Camps in the Gaza Strip
- ^ a b Katz, Samuel M. (1988) Israeli Elite Units since 1948. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 085045 8374. Page 10
- ^ Israel's reprisal policy, 1953-1956: the dynamics of military retaliation By Zeʼev Derori. p.142
- ^ Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949 - 1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 827850 0. Page 350.
- ^ Varble, Derek The Suez Crisis 1956, Osprey: London, 2003 page 46.
- ^ Sacco, Joe (2009). Footnotes in Gaza. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 0805073477.
- ^ a b Joe Sacco produces comics from the hot zones. New York Times.
- ^ UNRWA Report to the UN General Assembly November 1 – December 14, 1956
- ^ Sacco, Joe (2009). Footnotes in Gaza: A Graphic Novel. Metropolitan Books. ISBN 978-0805073478.
- ^ Guardian
[edit] Bibliography
- Sharon, Moshe (1997). Corpus inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, (CIAP) (Illustrated ed.). BRILL. ISBN 9004110836, 9789004110830. http://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC.
[edit] External links
- Khan Younis, articles from UNWRA
- close-up map of Gaza
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