Bal'a | |
---|---|
Arabic transcription(s) | |
• Arabic | بلعا |
• Latin | Bala'a (official) Balaa (unofficial) |
Location of Bal'a within Palestine | |
Coordinates: 32°19′59″N 35°06′31″E / 32.33306°N 35.10861°E | |
Palestine grid | 160/193 |
State | State of Palestine |
Governorate | Tulkarm |
Government | |
• Type | Municipality (from 1995) |
• Head of Municipality | Ahmad Said Mansur |
Area | |
• Total | 23,000 dunams (23.0 km2 or 8.9 sq mi) |
Population (2017)[1] | |
• Total | 7,822 |
• Density | 340/km2 (880/sq mi) |
Name meaning | Either "Swallowing", or "The hole in the millstone",[2] |
Bal'a (Arabic: بلعا) is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate, located approximately nine kilometers northeast of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank and three kilometers away from the highway connecting Tulkarm with Nablus.[3]
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 6,604 in 2007 and 7,822 in 2017.[1][4] In 1922, the town had a population of 1,259 nearly doubled to 2,220 in 1945. After Israel's occupation of the town in 1967 after the Six-Day War, Bal'a inhabitants numbered 3,800 after dozens of families from nearby towns such as, Deir al-Ghusun settled there after being expelled.