Battle of Hebron

Battle of Hebron / 1834 Hebron massacre
Part of Peasants' revolt in Palestine
DateEarly August 1834
Location
Hebron-Part of Egyptian-ruled provinces of Damascus Eyalet, nominally part of the Ottoman Empire
Result
  • Egyptian victory
  • Massacre of inhabitants
  • Conscription orders carried out
  • Plunder of town
Belligerents
Egypt Eyalet

Rebels of Hebron and Nablus Sanjak

  • Qasim and Barqawi clans of Nablus Sanjak
  • 'Amr tribe of Hebron Hills
Commanders and leaders
Ibrahim Pasha

Qasim al-Ahmad
Abd al-Rahman 'Amr

'Isa al-Barqawi
Strength
4,000 (infantry)
2,000 cavalry		 N/A
Casualties and losses
260 500 killed (rebels and civilians, including 12 Jews)

The Battle of Hebron occurred in early August 1834,[1] when the forces of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt launched an assault against Hebron to crush the last pocket of significant resistance in Palestine during the Peasants' revolt in Palestine. After heavy street battles, the Egyptian army defeated the rebels of Hebron,[2] and afterward subjected its inhabitants to violence following the fall of the city.[3] About 500 civilians and rebels were killed, while the Egyptian Army experienced 260 casualties.

Although the Jews had not participated in the uprising and despite Ibrahim Pasha's assurances that the Jewish quarter would be left unharmed, Hebronite Jews were attacked.[4][5] A total of 12 Jews were killed. The Jews of Hebron later referred to the events as a Yagma el Gabireh "great destruction".[6][7]

  1. ^ Oded Avsar (1970). Sefer Hebron (in Hebrew). Keter. p. 56. בשנת 1835, כשנה לאחר אותו פוגרום
  2. ^ Safi, Khaled M. (2008), "Territorial Awareness in the 1834 Palestinian Revolt", in Roger Heacock (ed.), Of Times and Spaces in Palestine: The Flows and Resistances of Identity, Beirut: Presses de l'Ifpo, ISBN 9782351592656
  3. ^ Baruch Kimmerling; Joel S. Migdal (2003). "The Revolt of 1834 and Modern Palestine". The Palestinian People: A History. Harvard University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-674-01129-8. The final battle occurred in Hebron on August 4: The Egyptian victory there was complete and included levelling of the city, rape of the women, mass killing and conscription of the men, the furnishing of 120 adolescents to Egyptian officers to do with as they wanted.
  4. ^ Moshe Maʻoz (1975). Studies on Palestine during the Ottoman period. Magnes Press. p. 147. ISBN 9789652235893. In Hebron, for example, Jews were massacred in 1834 by Egyptian soldiers who came to put down a local Muslim rebellion
  5. ^ David Vital (1975). The origins of Zionism. Clarendon Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-19-827194-9. In Safed the peasant revolt of 1834 hit the Jews particularly hard; in Hebron there was a massacre of Jews after the entry of Egyptian soldiers sent to put down the Muslim rebels.
  6. ^ Hyam Zvee Sneersohn (1872). Palestine and Roumania: a description of the Holy Land and the past and present state of Roumania and the Roumanian Jews. Ayer Publishing. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-405-10291-2.
  7. ^ Pinchas Hacohen Peli; Avigdor Shinʼan (1973). "The shifts in the status of Jews in Syria and Palestine in the 19th-century". Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress of Jewish Studies, the Hebrew University, Mount Scopus-Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 3-11 August, 1969. World Union of Jewish Studies. p. 74. A new era in the history of the region began with the conquest of Syria and Palestine by Ibrahim Pasha the Egyptian: a pogrom against Hebron Jewry, attacks on the Jews of Safed, and a blood libel in Damascus.