Khirbat Qumbaza | |
---|---|
Etymology: Kumbazah, possibly from Persian for dome or cupola [1] | |
Location within
Mandatory Palestine | |
Coordinates: 32°37′55″N 35°1′34″E / 32.63194°N 35.02611°E | |
Palestine grid | 152/226 |
Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
Subdistrict | Haifa |
Date of depopulation | May 1948 [3] |
Population (1931) | |
• Total | 2,160 [2] |
Current Localities | Kerem Maharal [4] |
Khirbat Qumbaza was a Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict, located 21.5 km south of Haifa, 3 km away from Wadi al-Milh. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in May 1948.
One km to the southeast of the village site lay the maqam of Shaykh Quttayna, just below Khirbat Quttayna. Khirbat Quttayna has been identified by some scholars as the Canaanite place Kartah. [5]
In the 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Khirbat Qumbaza as "a small hamlet on high ground". [6]
In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Khirbat Qumbaza was counted with Ijzim, Khirbat Al-Manara, Al-Mazar, Shaykh al-Burayk and al-Washahiyya. Together they had a population of 2160; 88 Christians and the rest Muslim, in a total of 442 houses. [2]
In July 1948, the IDF found hundreds of women, children and old people at Ijzim and nearby Khirbat Qumbaza. "More than 100" Arabs were reported killed, and about 100 militiamen were taken prisoners. [7] Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel, and according to Walid Khalidi, writing in 1992, some of the village's land was used by the Israeli army as military training ground, while the moshav of Kerem Maharal was close to the old village site. [4]
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link) Cited in Khalidi, 1992.