Al-Khisas (
Arabic: خربة الخِصاص, Khirbat al-Khiṣāṣ) was a
PalestinianArab village located 18.5 kilometers (11.5 mi) northeast of
Gaza near the modern city of
Ashkelon.[6]
Location
Al-Khisas was located just west of
Ni'ilya, south of
Al-Jura.
Al-Khisas, called Khisas, was inhabited in the
15th century.
Mamluk records show that in 1459 CE it was
endowed was a waqf.[7]
History
Late Ottoman period
In 1838, in the late
Ottoman era, el Khusas was noted as a place "in ruins or deserted", located in the Gaza district.[8]
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.[9][10]
The modern village was classified as a
hamlet in the Palestine Index Gazetter, and was built after
World War I.[5] Farmers from neighboring areas first built temporary huts at the site to shelter themselves during the harvest, gradually they settled and built
adobe houses.[5] The population relied on neighboring villages
Al-Jura and
Ni'ilya for medical, educational and administrative services.[5]
In the
1945 statistics, Al-Khisas had a population of 150 Muslims[2] with a total of 6,269
dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[14] Of this, 191
dunums of village land were used for
citrus and
bananas, 419 for
cereal farming, 2,671 irrigated or used for orchards,[15] while 10 dunams were built-up land.[16]
1948 war; State of Israel
The village was depopulated during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War between November 4–5, 1948, at the end of
Operation Yo'av.[5] The Israeli army found about 150 people in Al-Khisas and nearby
Ni'ilya; they were all expelled to
Beit Hanoun on the Gaza strip.[17]
In 1992 the village site was described as being "engulfed by the Israeli town of
Ashkelon".[5]