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Beit Lahia

Coordinates: 31°33′N 34°30′E / 31.550°N 34.500°E / 31.550; 34.500
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Not to be confused with Beit Lahia, Lebanon.

Beit Lahia
City
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicبيت لاهيا
 • LatinBayt Lahiya (official[citation needed])
Official logo of Beit Lahia
Municipal Seal of Beit Lahia
Beit Lahia is located in State of Palestine
Beit Lahia
Beit Lahia
Location of Beit Lahia within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°33′N 34°30′E / 31.550°N 34.500°E / 31.550; 34.500
Palestine grid102/106
State State of Palestine
GovernorateNorth Gaza
Government
 • TypeCity
 • Head of MunicipalityIzz al-Din al-Dahnoun
Population
 (2017)[1]
 • Total89,838
Name meaning"House of Lahi"[2]
Websitewww.bietlahia.mun.ps
Map

Beit Lahia or Beit Lahiya (Arabic: بيت لاهيا) is a city in the Gaza Strip, north of Jabalia, in the North Gaza Governorate of the State of Palestine. It sits next to Beit Hanoun and close to the border with Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 89,838 in 2017.[1]

Geography

The word "Lahia" is Syriac and means "desert" or "fatigue".[citation needed] It is surrounded by dunes, some of which rise to 55 m (180 ft) above sea level. The area is renowned for its many large sycamore fig trees. The city is known for its fresh, sweet water,[clarification needed] berries and citrus trees.[3] According to Edward Henry Palmer, "Lahia" was from "Lahi", a personal name.[2]

History

Roman period

Beit Lahia has an ancient hill and nearby lay abandoned village ruins.[3] The town has been identified as the Bethelia and had originally a pagan temple.[4][5]

According to the 5th century historian Sozomen, whose family had lived in the town for several generation, the townspeople started converting to Christianity due to the hermit Hilarion who is attributed to have healed miraculously a citizen called Alaphion.[6] An eremitic center was founded around the year 360 in the village, housing around four anchorites who were disciples of Hilarion.[4] Ceramics from the Byzantine period have been found.[7]

Early Islamic period

A mihrab, or mosque alcove indicating the direction of salah (Muslim daily prayers), is all that remains of an ancient mosque to the west of Beit Lahia dating to the end of the Fatimid Caliphate and beginning of the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin, and two other mosques dating to the Gaza Sanjak of the Ottoman era.[3] Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1229) described "Bait Lihya" as being located "near Ghazzah", and he further noted that "it is a village with many fruit-trees".[8]

Mamluk period

A marble slab, deposited in the maqam of Salim Abu Musallam in Beit Lahia is inscribed in late Mamluk naskhi letters. It is an epitaph over four sons of the Governor of Gaza, Aqbay al-Ashrafi, who all died in the month of Rajab 897 (=29 April-9 May 1492 CE). It is assumed that the children died of the plague, described by Mujir al-Din, which ravaged Palestine in 1491–2.[9]

Ottoman Empire

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Damascus Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596, Beit Lahia appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the nahiyah (subdistrict) of the Gaza Sanjak. It had a population of 70 Muslim households and paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives.[10]

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the area of Beit Lahia experienced a significant process of settlement decline due to Bedouin pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but the land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages.[11]

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beit Lehia as a Muslim village located in the Gaza district.[12]

In May 1863, Victor Guérin visited the village. He described it:

[P]eopled by 250 inhabitants, it occupies an oblong valley, well cultivated, and surrounded by high sand-dunes, which cause a great heat. It is a little oasis, incessantly menaced by moving sand-hills, which surround it on every side, and would engulf it were it not for the continued struggle of man to arrest their progress.[13]

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that Beit Lahia had a population of 394, with a total of 118 houses, though the population count included men only.[14][15]

In 1883 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as a "small village with fine gardens and groves of large and ancient olives in the middle of the sand. It has a well to the south [..] There is a small mosque in the village."[5]

Mandatory Palestine

Beit Lahia 1931 1:20,000
Beit Lahia 1945 1:250,000

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Lahia had a population of 871 inhabitants, all Muslims,[16] increasing by the 1931 census to 1,133, still all Muslim, in 223 houses.[17]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Lahiya consisted of 1,700 Muslims[18] and the land area was 38,376 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[19] Of this, 134 dunams were designated for citrus and bananas, 1,765 for plantations and irrigable land, 15,185 for cereals,[20] while 18 dunams were built-up areas.[21]

Post-1948

See also: 2004 Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip

On 4 January 2005, seven civilian residents of Beit Lahia, including six members of the same family, were killed, with the incident blamed on shelling by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of the agricultural area where they were working.[citation needed]

On 9 June 2006, eight civilians were killed by IDF shells while picnicking on the northern Gaza beach in Beit Lahia. The dead included seven members of the Ali Ghaliya family.[22] The IDF disputed they were responsible.[23] The town was a frequent target of airstrikes by Israel during the Gaza War (2008–2009) and has been a battlefield between Israel and Hamas.[when?][citation needed]

The Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque missile strike occurred on 3 January as part of the Gaza War when an Israeli missile hit the Ibrahim al-Maqadna Mosque during evening prayer.[24] Witnesses said over 200 Palestinians were praying inside at the time.[25][26] At least 14 people, including six children, were killed, and many more than 60 wounded.[26]

In December 2023, the Israel Defense Forces began their offensive towards Beit Lahia in order to surround Gaza City entirely. Israel launched airstrikes on targets which they claimed held Hamas militants.[27] Though they launched several assaults on the city, Israel did not fully occupy Beit Lahia. Rather, they had encircled the town and occupied the surrounding villages and farmland. In January 2024, Israel withdrew from the majority of North Gaza, and a ground connection between Palestinian-controlled Gaza City was re-established. In April 2024, Israel withdrew all territories in the Gaza Strip except for the Netzarim Corridor, returning the northern villages such as As-Siafa back to Palestinian control until the second Israeli invasion of northern Gaza in May 2024 as a result of Hamas regrouping in some areas there.[28] By June 2024, Gaza's Civil Defence stated the destruction in Beit Lahia "defies imagination".[29]

Demography

Some of Beit Lahia's residents trace their origins to Egypt, while others are Bedouins who migrated from the Mount Hebron area.[30]

References

  1. ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b Palmer, 1881, p. 358
  3. ^ a b c Beit Lahaia Archived 23 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine Municipality of Gaza.
  4. ^ a b Bitton-Ashkelony, Brouri; Kofsky, Arieh (1 January 2004). Christian Gaza In Late Antiquity. BRILL. p. 69. ISBN 978-90-04-13868-1. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp. 233-234
  6. ^ Bitton-Ashkelony, Brouri; Kofsky, Arieh (February 2006). The Monastic School of Gaza. Brill. pp. 13, 16. ISBN 9789047408444. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  7. ^ Dauphin, 1998, p. 881
  8. ^ le Strange, 1890, p. 414
  9. ^ Sharon, 1999, pp. 149-151
  10. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 144
  11. ^ Marom, Roy; Taxel, Itamar (1 January 2023). "Ḥamāma: The historical geography of settlement continuity and change in Majdal 'Asqalān's hinterland, 1270 - 1750 CE". Journal of Historical Geography. 82: 49–65. doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2023.08.003.
  12. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 118
  13. ^ Guérin, 1869, p. 176, as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 234
  14. ^ Socin, 1879, p. 146
  15. ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 129 also noted 118 houses
  16. ^ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8
  17. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 2
  18. ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 31
  19. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 45
  20. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 86
  21. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 136
  22. ^ The Guardian: Death on the beach: seven Palestinians killed as Israeli shells hit family picnic, 10 June 2006
  23. ^ Haaretz: IDF probe: Gaza beach blast not caused by wayward army shell
  24. ^ Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (15 September 2009). "HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES" (PDF). The Guardian. London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2009.
  25. ^ Weaver, Matthew (3 January 2009). "Israel fires artillery shells into Gaza". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  26. ^ a b Israeli troops enter Gaza Strip BBC News. 3 January 2009
  27. ^ Sabbagh, Dan (3 December 2023). "Israel says its ground forces are operating across 'all of Gaza'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  28. ^ "IDF withdraws all troops from southern Gaza". www.israelhayom.com. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  29. ^ "Level of destruction in Beit Lahiya 'defies imagination': Gaza's Civil Defense". YouTube. Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  30. ^ Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 385

Bibliography

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