Bani Suheila (Arabic: بني سهيلا) is a municipality in the Gaza Strip, in the Khan Yunis Governorate of the State of Palestine. The town is located 2 km (1.2 mi) east of the city of Khan Younis. As of 2017, Bani Suheila had a population of 41,439 people.[2]
Bani Suheila | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بني سهيلا |
 Municipal Logo of Bani Suheila | |
  Bani Suheila Location of Bani Suheila within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 31°20′34″N 34°19′31″E / 31.34278°N 34.32528°E | |
| Palestine grid | 85/83 |
| State |  State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Khan Yunis |
| Control |  Israel Defense Forces[1] |
| Government | |
| • Type | City |
| • Head of Municipality | Shahab Al-Khalileh |
| Area | |
| • Total | 5,170 dunams (5.17 km2 or 2.00 sq mi) |
| Population (2017)[2] | |
| • Total | 41,439 |
| • Density | 8,000/km2 (21,000/sq mi) |
| Website | www.banisuhaila.org |
History
editThe history of these towns goes back to Canaanite, Philistine, and Roman times. Before 1948, these towns boasted numerous khans (inns) for travelers. Khan Yunis owes its name to a Mamluk official who built its large khan in the 14th century.[citation needed]
For centuries, the coastal area was a main thoroughfare between Egypt and the Mediterranean coast, used by traders and conquering armies alike. The trade route through Gaza to Egypt brought great economic advantage to the area. In previous centuries, the lack of restricting borders enabled unobstructed communication and travel and the intermixing of influences and styles, especially among the Bedouin tribes. This rich agricultural area prospered by settled Bedouin tribes that became active in regional trade on routes connecting Egypt, the Levant, and Arabia. Many families benefited from the increase in regional trade and became large land owners during this time. During Ottoman rule, the Al Qarra clan became the largest landowning family in southern Gaza due to their vast trade networks.[citation needed]
Bani Suheila was marked Maatadieh Village on Jacotin’s map surveyed during Napoleon's 1799 invasion.[3]
In 1838, Edward Robinson called it Beni Sehileh, located in Gaza.[4] In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin found Bani Suheila to have about 1,300 inhabitants,[5] while an official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed 209 houses and a population of 440, though the population count included men, only.[6][7]
As recorded in 1886, Bani Suheila was a large village containing 120 huts, partly built of stone, partly of adobe, and surrounded by gardens of watermelons, figs, palms, jummez, apricots and legumes. In the north a good but deep well, worked by a camel, supplied drinking water. Near the town, in Sheikh Yusuf several ancient remains, including small twisted marble columns and building stones were found.[8]
British era
editIn the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bani Suheila had a population of 1,043 inhabitants, all Muslim,[9] increasing in the 1931 census to 2,063, still all Muslims, in 406 houses.[10]
At the end of the Mandate period, in the 1945 statistics, Bani Suheila had a population of 3,220, all Muslims,[11] with 11,128 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[12] Of this, 54 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 10,639 used for cereals,[13] while 97 dunams were built-up land.[14]
Post 1948
editDuring the night of August 31, 1955, Israeli armed forces attacked Bani Suheila.[15] On April 5, 1956, Israeli artillery shelled the town.[16]
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the population of Bani Suheila had grown to 32,800 people in mid-year 2006.[17][18] During the Israel-Hamas war in December of 2023, the IDF took full control of the city.[19][20]
Demography
editSome of its residents are from the Arab Jaram clan, formerly residing in Majdal Yaba and Attil, while others trace their origins to Egypt.[21]
References
edit- ^ Shurufa, Wafaa; Jeffery, Jack; Magdy, Samy; Press, Associated (2023-12-05). "Israel moves into Gaza's second-largest city and intensifies strikes in bloody new phase of the war". WHYY-TV. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
- ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
- ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 173 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Second Appendix, p. 118
- ^ Guérin, 1869, p. 251
- ^ Socin, 1879, p. 144
- ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 129 also found 209 houses
- ^ Schumacher, 1886, p. 192
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 2
- ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 31
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 45
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 86
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 136
- ^ al-Sayyid Muḥammad ʻAlī Nawfal (1965) Israel's crime record Information Dept. p. 28
- ^ Morris, 1993, p. 388
- ^ Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics Archived 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine Projected Mid -Year Population for Khan Yunis Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006
- ^ A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry By Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish Problems in Palestine and Europe, United Nations General Assembly. Special Committee on Palestine Published by Institute for Palestine Studies, 1991 ISBN 0-88728-211-3 p 132
- ^ Bob, Yonah Jeremy (2023-12-17). "Israel-Hamas war: IDF takes over Yahya Sinwar's Gaza vacation home". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
- ^ "Israeli army takes control of Hamas stronghold in southern Gaza". EFE. 2023-12-17. Retrieved 2024-01-22.
- ^ Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 385-6
Bibliography
edit- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Guérin, V. (1869). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 1: Judee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Centre.
- Hartmann, M. (1883). "Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 6: 102–149.
- Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2015-04-17.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, B. (1993). Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829262-7.
- Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
- Schumacher, G. (1886). "Researches in Southern Palestine". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 18: 171–194.
- Socin, A. (1879). "Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 2: 135–163.