Ghabbatiyya

Ghabbatiyya (Arabic: غبّاطية‎) was a Palestinian Arab hamlet in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 30, 1948 under Operation Hiram. It was located 12 km northwest of Safad.

Ghabbatiyya

غبّاطية

Ghabbatiya[1]
Village
Etymology: Kh. Ghabbâtî, the ruin of Ghabbâti; perhaps from ghabit, “low-lying land”[2]
Ghabbatiyya
Coordinates: 33°00′53″N 35°22′33″E
Palestine grid185/268
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulationOctober 30, 1948[1]
Population
 (1945)
 • Total60[3]

In 1945 it had a population of 60 Muslims.[3]

History

The village was located on a rugged hill between Mount al-Jarmaq (1208 m) and Mount ‘Adathir (1009m).[4] Three wadis in the vicinity supplied Ghabbatiyya with water.

In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found at Kh. Ghabbâti "foundations of walls and one olive press".[5]

British mandate era

The Palestine Gazetteer revealed that it was classified as a hamlet, primarily involved in agriculture and animal husbandry.[4] A road connected it to highways that led to Safad and Nahariyya, a Jewish settlement on the Mediterranean.[4]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ‘’Ghabbatia’’ had a population of 9 Muslims.[6]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 60 Muslims,[3] with a total of 3,453 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[7] Of this, 15 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 412 for cereals;[8] while a total of 2,509 dunams was non-cultivable area.[9]

1948, aftermath

Israeli forces occupied Ghabbatiyya on 30 October 1948, during the second phase of Operation Hiram and according to an Israeli army spokesman, several hundred of the area’s Arab Liberation Army garrison were killed, and several hundred taken prisoner.[4]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The site is deserted and covered with grass, a few fig trees, stones, and the ruins of stone houses. The walls of one destroyed house still stand. The surrounding land is used by Israelis for grazing and forestry, and woods cover nearby Mount ‘Adathir."[4]

References
  1. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #61. Also gives cause of depopulation as "?"
  2. Palmer, 1881, pp. 6483
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 9
  4. Khalidi, 1992, p.451
  5. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 237
  6. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41
  7. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 69.
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 119
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 169

Bibliography
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