Bayt Jirja

Bayt Jirja
بيت جرجه
Beit Jerja
Farmers near Bayt Jirja threshing wheat in 1940
Farmers near Bayt Jirja threshing wheat in 1940
Etymology: The house of the highway[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Bayt Jirja (click the buttons)
Bayt Jirja is located in Mandatory Palestine
Bayt Jirja
Bayt Jirja
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°36′11″N 34°34′51″E / 31.60306°N 34.58083°E / 31.60306; 34.58083
Palestine grid110/112
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictGaza
Date of depopulationdate unknown[4]
Area
[3]
 • Total
8,015 dunams (8.015 km2 or 3.095 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
940[2][3]
Current LocalitiesNone

Bayt Jirja or Beit Jerja (Arabic: بيت جرجه) was a Palestinian Arab village 15.5 km Northeast of Gaza. In 1931 the village consisted of 115 houses. It was overrun by Israeli forces during operation Yo'av in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Bayt Jirja was found depopulated in November 1948, during "clean up sweeps" to expel any partial inhabited villages and destroy village housing to prevent any possible re-occupation in the area.[5] The village was completely destroyed after the occupation and only one tomb remains.

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 365
  2. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 31 Archived 2020-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 45
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #312, gives both date and cause of depopulation as "Not known"
  5. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #312, pp. 517–518