Al-Khisas, Gaza

Al-Khisas (Arabic: خربة الخِصاص, Khirbat al-Khiṣāṣ) was a Palestinian Arab village located 18.5 kilometers (11.5 mi) northeast of Gaza near the modern city of Ashkelon.[6]

For depopulated village in the Safad District, see Al-Khisas.
al-Khisas
خربة الخِصاص
Khirbat al-Khiṣāṣ
Village
Etymology: the ruin of booths or reed huts[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Khisas, Gaza (click the buttons)
al-Khisas is located in Mandatory Palestine
al-Khisas
al-Khisas
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°38′53″N 34°33′40″E
Palestine grid108/117
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictGaza
Date of depopulationNovember 4–5, 1948[2]
Area
[3]
 • Total6,269 dunams (6.269 km2 or 2.420 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total150[4][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesAshkelon[5]

Location

Al-Khisas was located just west of Ni'ilya, south of Al-Jura.

Al-Khisas, called Khisas, was inhabited in the 15th century. Mamluk records show that in 1459 CE it was endowed was a waqf.[7]

History

Late Ottoman period

In 1838, in the late Ottoman era, el Khusas was noted as a place "in ruins or deserted", located in the Gaza district.[8]

An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that Chasas had 6 houses and a population of 35, though the population count included men, only.[9][10]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found at Khurbet el Khesas "a few heaps of stones with a well near".[11]

British Mandate period

The modern village was classified as a hamlet in the Palestine Index Gazetter, and was built after World War I.[5] Farmers from neighboring areas first built temporary huts at the site to shelter themselves during the harvest, gradually they settled and built adobe houses.[5] The population relied on neighboring villages Al-Jura and Ni'ilya for medical, educational and administrative services.[5]

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Khesas had a population of 102 inhabitants, all Muslims,[12] increasing in the 1931 census to 133, still all Muslims, in 26 houses.[13]

In the 1945 statistics, Al-Khisas had a population of 150 Muslims[4] with a total of 6,269 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[14] Of this, 191 dunums of village land were used for citrus and bananas, 419 for cereal farming, 2,671 irrigated or used for orchards,[15] while 10 dunams were built-up land.[16]

1948 war; State of Israel

The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War between November 4–5, 1948, at the end of Operation Yo'av.[5] The Israeli army found about 150 people in Al-Khisas and nearby Ni'ilya; they were all expelled to Beit Hanoun on the Gaza strip.[17]

In 1992 the village site was described as being "engulfed by the Israeli town of Ashkelon".[5]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 361
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #308. Also gives the cause for depopulation
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 46
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 32
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p.123
  6. al-Khisas, Palestine Remembered, retrieved 2009-10-22
  7. Marom, Roy; Taxel, Itamar (2023-10-01). "Ḥamāma: The historical geography of settlement continuity and change in Majdal 'Asqalan's hinterland, 1270–1750 CE". Journal of Historical Geography. 82: 49–65. doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2023.08.003. ISSN 0305-7488.
  8. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 119
  9. Socin, 1879, p. 149 Also noted in the Gaza district
  10. Hartmann, 1883, p. 149
  11. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 252
  12. Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8
  13. Mills, 1932, p. 5.
  14. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 46
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 87
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 137
  17. Morris, 2004, pp. 517-518

Bibliography
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