Al-Khisas ( ar, خربة الخِصاص, ''Khirbat Khisâs'') was a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

village located northeast of Gaza near the modern city of

Ashkelon Ashkelon or Ashqelon (; Hebrew: , , ; Philistine: ), also known as Ascalon (; Ancient Greek: , ; Arabic: , ), is a coastal city in the Southern District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border wit ...

Location

Al-Khisas was located just west of

Ni'ilya Ni'ilya was a Palestinian village in the Gaza Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on November 4, 1948, under Operation Yo'av. It was located 19 km northeast of Gaza in the city territory of modern Ashkelon. T ...

, south of Al-Jura.

History

In 1838, in the late Ottoman era, ''el Khusas'' was noted as a place "in ruins or deserted," located in the Gaza district.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
119
/ref> 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. In 1883, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

'' found at ''Khurbet el Khesas'' "a few heaps of stones with a

well A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

near."

British Mandate era

The modern village was classified as a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the ''Palestine Index Gazetter'', and was built after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Khalidi, 1992, p.123 Farmers from neighboring areas first built temporary huts at the site to shelter themselves during the harvest, gradually they settled and built adobe houses. The population relied on neighboring villages Al-Jura and

for medical, educational and administrative services. In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Khesas'' had a population of 102 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 133, still all Muslims, in 26 houses.Mills, 1932, p
5
In the 1945 statistics, Al-Khisas had a population of 150 Muslims with a total of 6,269 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 191 dunums of village land were used for

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is native to ...

and bananas, 419 for cereal farming, 2,671 irrigated or used for orchards, while 10 dunams were built-up land.

1948 and aftermath

The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War between November 4–5, 1948 at the end of

Operation Yo'av Operation Yoav (also called ''Operation Ten Plagues'' or ''Operation Yo'av'') was an Israeli military operation carried out from 15–22 October 1948 in the Negev Desert, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Its goal was to drive a wedge between th ...

. The Israeli army found about 150 people in Al-Khisas and nearby

; they were all expelled to

Beit Hanoun Beit Hanoun or Beit Hanun ( ar, بيت حانون) is a city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 32,187 in mid-2006. It is administered by the Hamas admi ...

on the Gaza strip.Morris, 2004, pp
517
518 In 1992 the village site was described as being "engulfed by the Israeli town of

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To al-Khisas

Khirbet al-Khisas

Zochrot Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 19
IAAWikimedia commons

from the

Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the community ...

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Gaza