Beit Lahia

Geography

Beit Lahia is surrounded by dunes, some of which rise to 55 m above sea level. The area is renowned for its many large sycamore fig trees. The city is known for its fresh, sweet water, berries and citrus trees. According to Edward Henry Palmer, "Lahia" was from "Lahi", a personal name.

History

Roman period

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

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

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. 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".

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 AH (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 1491–1492.

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.

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.

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

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

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."

Mandatory Palestine

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

2004–2023

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.

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. The IDF disputed they were responsible.

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.

The Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque missile strike occurred on 3 January 2009 as part of the Gaza War when an Israeli missile hit the Ibrahim al-Maqadna Mosque during evening prayer. Witnesses said over 200 Palestinians were praying inside at the time.{{ cite news | title = Israel fires artillery shells into Gaza | url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/03/gaza-israel-attacks-artillery | work = The Guardian | date = 3 January 2009 | access-date=23 April 2010}}

In 2017, the Edward Said Public Library was established in Beit Lahia by the poet Mosab Abu Toha; it was the first public library in the Gaza Strip for English-language works.

Gaza war (2023–present)

In December 2023, the Israel Defence Forces began their offensive in Beit Lahia. Israel launched airstrikes on targets Hamas militants. 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. Around this time, the Gaza Soup Kitchen was established in Beit Lahia to provide food to Palestinians at risk of famine.

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.

By June 2024, Gaza's Civil Defence stated the destruction in Beit Lahia "defies imagination".

On 29 October 2024, nearly 100 civilians, including over 20 children, were killed in a bombing of a five-story building by Israeli Forces. The Gaza Health Ministry reported over 90 casualties, including 25 children, with numerous individuals trapped under the rubble.

On 26 March 2025, The Guardian reported that hundreds of Palestinians, mostly male, had gathered in Beit Lahia, chanting anti-Hamas slogans.

Demography

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

International relations

Beit Lahia is twin or sister cities with:

• Indonesia Padang, Indonesia
• Turkey Talas, Turkey

References

Bibliography

References

1. (February 2018). "Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017". [[State of Palestine]].
2. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/358/mode/1up 358]
3. (1 January 2004). "Christian Gaza In Late Antiquity". BRILL.
4. (February 2006). "The Monastic School of Gaza". Brill.
5. Dauphin, 1998, p. 881
6. [http://www.mideasttravelling.net/palestine/gaza/gaza_culture.htm Beit Lahaia] {{webarchive. link. (23 August 2013 Municipality of Gaza.)
7. le Strange, 1890, p. [https://archive.org/stream/palestineundermo00lestuoft#page/414/mode/1up 414]
8. Sharon, 1999, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC&pg=PA149 149]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC&pg=PA151 151]
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11. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/118/mode/1up 118]
12. Guérin, 1869, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr03gugoog#page/n187/mode/1up 176], as translated by Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/234/mode/1up 234]
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14. Hartmann, 1883, p. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n937/mode/1up 129] also noted 118 houses
15. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/233/mode/1up 233]-234
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32. (2024-10-30). "Israel again bombs Gaza's Beit Lahiya hours after killing 93 in one strike".
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