Khan Yunis

History

Ancient period

Herodotus describes a city named Ienysos () located between Lake Serbonis and Kadytis (modern Gaza city). He talks about how the Persian military marched through the location on its way to Egypt. He also describes how the coastal area between Kadytis and Ienysos was inhabited by local Arab tribes. Some sources, due to phonological resemblance of the names and due to the general matching of the geographic locations, associate this site with modern Khan Yunis.

Other sources have suggested a further inland location of "Khirbet Ma'in Abu Sitta" (Palestinian village depopulated in 1949, near modern kibbutz of Nir Oz) or the Egyptian town of Arish as possible locations of Ienysos, but there is no clear evidence to support this identification.

Ancient discoveries in Khan Yunis feature a lintel with a Greek inscription, discovered repurposed in the tomb of Sheikh Hamada. The inscription translates to: 'Hilarion - giving thanks to St. Georgius.' Originally housed in the Musée de Notre Dame de France in Jerusalem, the lintel is currently lost.

Establishment by Mamluks

Main article: Barquq Castle

The khan served as resting stop for couriers of the barid, the Mamluk postal network in Palestine and Syria.

Ottoman period

Khan Yunis was the site of a minor battle in late 1516, when the Egypt-based Mamluks were defeated by Ottoman forces under the leadership of Hadim Sinan Pasha. The Ottoman sultan Selim I then arrived in the area where he led the Ottoman army across the Sinai Peninsula to conquer Egypt. During the 17th and 18th centuries the Ottomans assigned an Asappes garrison associated with the Cairo Citadel to guard the fortress at Khan Yunis.

Pierre Jacotin named the village Kan Jounes on his map from 1799, while in 1838, Robinson noted Khan Yunas as a Muslim village located in the Gaza district. In 1863 French explorer Victor Guérin visited Khan Yunis. He found it had about a thousand inhabitants, and that many fruit trees, especially apricots were planted in the vicinity.

During the Ottoman period, the Bedouin tribe of 'Arab al-Wahidat (عرب الوحيدات) were among the residents of Khan Yunis.

At the end of the 19th century, the Ottomans established a municipal council to administer the affairs of Khan Yunis, which had become the second largest town in the Gaza District after Gaza itself.

British Mandate

In the 1938 village statistics, the population is listed as 4,379 (including three Jews) with 3,953 in nearby suburbs. In the 1945 statistics, Khan Yunis had a population of 11,220 (11,180 Muslims and 40 Christians), with 2,302 (urban) and 53,820 (rural) dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 4,172 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 23,656 used for cereals, while 1,847 dunams were built-up land.

1948–1967

Khan Yunis was one of the towns where Palestinian refugees who were forcibly expelled from areas of Palestine to the east and north of the Gaza Strip gathered, to wait for a resolution that would allow then to return to their ancestral villages and homes.

During the night of 31 August 1955, three Israeli paratroop companies attacked 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 Abasan were destroyed, as well as railway tracks and telegraph poles. In heavy fighting, 72 Egyptian soldiers were killed. One Israeli soldier was killed and 17 were wounded. The operation led to a ceasefire on September 4, forcing President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Egyptian government to halt Palestinian fedayeen operations against Israel. One of the mechanized companies was commanded by Rafael Eitan.

Before the Suez War, Khan Yunis was officially administered by the All-Palestine Government, seated in Gaza and later in Cairo. 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. 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.

There are conflicting reports of what happened. Israel said that Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces were still facing armed resistance, while the Palestinians said all resistance had ceased by then, and that many unarmed civilians were killed as the Israel troops went through the town and camp, seeking men in possession of arms.

The killings, dubbed the Khan Yunis massacre, were reported to the UN General Assembly on 15 December 1956 by the Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Henry Labouisse. According to the report, the exact number of dead and wounded is not known, but the director received lists of names of persons allegedly killed from a trustworthy source, including 275 people, of which 140 were refugees and 135 local residents.

After 1959, the All-Palestine Government of Gaza Strip was abolished and the city was included in the United Arab Republic, which was shortly disestablished and the Gaza Strip came under the direct Egyptian military occupation rule.

1967 and aftermath

In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel occupied Khan Yunis again.

As a result of the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords, Khan Yunis and most of the Gaza Strip (excluding Israeli settlements and military areas) were placed under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

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.

The Palestinian Authority came into control of the entirety of the Strip following the 2005 Israeli disengagement. However, following the Battle of Gaza in 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and established its own government in the region.

Israel–Gaza war

Main article: Siege of Khan Yunis, July 2024 Khan Yunis incursion, August 2024 Khan Yunis incursion, Battle of Khan Yunis (2025)

Economy

Khan Yunis is the second largest urban area in the Gaza Strip after Gaza City. It serves as the principal market center of the territory's southern half and hosts a weekly Bedouin souk ("open-air market") mostly involving local commodities. Khan Yunis had the highest unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories.

Education

• University College of Science and Technology
• Al Quds Open University
• Palestine College of Nursing

Culture and heritage

Barquq Castle

Barquq Castle was a Mamluk-era fortified mosque and caravanserai. It was very damaged by the Israeli army during the Gaza war. File:Barquq Castle from Thiersch's Pharos, antike, Islam und Occident.png|At the beginning of the 20th century File:Yunus al-Nûrûzi Caravansary, 2016.jpg|Interior remains in 2016 File:Barquq castle exterior (adjusted).jpg|Barquq castle exterior in 2020

Al Qarara Cultural Museum

Located in Al-Qarara, on the outskirts of Khan Yunis, the cultural museum tells the story of the history of Palestine. Key objects included Byzantine mosaics, swords dating to the Crusader period, thobes, as well as jewellery worn by women prior to the Nakba. It also included military items dating to the British Mandate in Palestine.

The museum's structure, display cases, and collection were destroyed in October 2023 by Israeli forces.

Notable people

• Hiba Abu Nada (1991-2023), poet and novelist killed in an Israeli air force bombing of her home in Khan Yunis
• Rouzan al-Najjar, nurse born September 11, 1996 in Khan Younes, killed by a bullet of an Israeli army sniper in June 2018
• Mohammed Assaf, singer who grew up in the Khan Yunis refugee camp, winner of the second season of Arab Idol
• Mohammed Shabir (1946 – 2023), doctor in microbiology and former president of The Islamic University in Gaza killed by an Israeli sniper during Gaza War
• Yahya Sinwar (1962 - 2024), Palestinian militant and politician who served as chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024, and as the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from February 2017, until his death in October 2024 File:מוחמד עסאף.jpg|Mohammed Assaf File:Yahya al-Sinwar profile portrait 3x4.jpg|Yahya Sinwar

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Khan Yunis is twinned with the following cities:

• NOR Hamar, Norway
• ESP Almuñécar, Spain
• FRA Évry, France
• ITA Bisceglie, Italy
• ITA Alcamo, Italy

References

Bibliography

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