Beit Lahia

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.[7]

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596, Beit Lahia appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the Gaza Sanjak. It had a population of 70 Muslim households and paid a fix tax rate of 25% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives.[8]

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the area of Beit Lahia experienced a significant process of settlement decline due to nomadic pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but the land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages.[9]

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beit Lehia as a Muslim village, located in the Gaza district.[10]

In May 1863 Victor Guérin visited the village. He described it as "peopled 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".[11] 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.[12][13]

In 1883 the PEF'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."[4]

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,[14] increasing by the 1931 census to 1,133, still all Muslim, in 223 houses.[15]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Lahiya consisted of 1,700 Muslims[16] and the land area was 38,376 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 134 dunams were designated for citrus and bananas, 1,765 for plantations and irrigable land, 15,185 for cereals,[18] while 18 dunams were built-up areas.[19]

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 Gazan beach in Beit Lahia. The dead included seven members of the Ali Ghaliya family.[20] The IDF disputed they were responsible.[21] The town is a frequent target of airstrikes by Israel and has been a battlefield between Israel and Hamas. The Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque was hit by Israeli missiles in 2009, resulting in 13 deaths.

Massacre of Ibrahim al-Maqadma Mosque occurred on 3 January 2009 as part of the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza War when an Israeli missile hit the Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque in the Gaza strip during the evening prayers.[22] Witnesses said over 200 Palestinians were praying inside at the time.[23][24] At least 14 people, including six children, were killed, and many more than 60 wounded.[24]