Julis, Gaza

Julis was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with the rest of Palestine, and by 1596 it was part of the nahiya of Gaza, in the Liwa of Gaza. It consisted of 204 persons (37 households), all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, fruit, beehives, vineyards and goats; a total of 10,400 akçe. 6,5/24 of the revenue went to a Waqf.[9]

In 1838, Julis was noted as a village in the District of Gaza.[10]

In 1863 Victor Guérin found the village to be located on a hillock and containing five hundred inhabitants. It had a oualy, dedicated to Scheik Mohammed, was internally decorated with two fragments.[11] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 101 houses and a population of 307, though the population count included only men.[12][13]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Julis as mostly built of adobe brick structures, and it had a well to the south, and a pool surrounded by gardens to the northeast.[14]

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jules had a population of 481 Muslims,[15] increasing in the 1931 census to 682, still all Muslims, in 165 houses.[16]

The village was laid out in a square, sandwiched between the two highways and bounded at one end by the traffic circle where they intersected. Its adobe and cement houses were constructed close together. The village had a mosque, and a shrine dedicated to Shaykh Khayr. According to local tradition, Khayr was a Muslim soldier killed fighting against the Crusaders. Village shops were scattered along the highway and in 1937 a school was opened; it had an enrollment of 86 students in the mid-1940s. Underground water was abundant in Julis and was used for domestic methods.[6]

Julis 1930 1:20,000

Julis 1945 1:250,000 (botton centre)

During World War II, the British authorities built a highway that passed through Julis parallel and feeding traffic to the coastal highway. The road also intersected at the village with the highway leading from al-Majdal (Ashkelon) to the Jerusalem–Jaffa highway. This gave the village importance as a transportation center. The British also constructed a military camp in Julis to control the junction.[6]

In the 1945 statistics Julis had a population of 1,030 Muslims,[4] with a total of 13,584 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, 1,360 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 931 for plantations and irrigable land, 10,803 for cereals,[17] while 30 dunams were built-up land.[18]

On May 27–28, 1948, the Givati Brigade's First Battalion captured a military barracks in Julis during Operation Barak, but failed to gain control of the village itself. Egyptian forces attempted to recapture it almost immediately. According to the History of the Haganah, "The defenders of the place [Givati forces] blocked enemy units which tried... to infiltrate the barracks from the direction of the village of Julis." The Haganah account says that Julis was captured on June 11, as the Givati's Third Battalion mounted a number of operations to occupy a number of villages before the first truce of the war took place. However, in Gamal Abdel Nasser's memoirs, he recalled the maneuvers having taken place soon after the truce came into effect.[6]

At the end of the truce, Julis became one of the many main positions the Egyptians failed to recapture. The Egyptian Army's Sixth Battalion which Nasser was chief of staff of, was ordered to take back the position. In later years, Nasser was very critical of the operation's planning, writing "Once again we were a facing a battle for which we had no preparation. We had no information about the enemy at Julis." In the few hours before his unit was to move towards Julis, Nasser organized a quick reconnaissance of the position. During the course of the battle, his commanding officer ordered him to participate in the actual fighting, leaving his unit without direction or coordination. After getting hold of a few aerial photographs of the village, Nasser convinced his commander that "even if we had succeeded in entering Julis... it would have turned into a cemetery for our forces." He argued that Julis was indefensible without the barracks which overlooked it.[6] On July 10, after many Egyptian casualties, the battle was called off. According to the Haganah, the Givati units repulsed an Egyptian attack in which no Israeli soldier was injured. A close colleague of Nasser, Isma'il Mohieddin was killed during the battle.[5]

Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel and the moshav of Hodaya was established on village lands southwest of the village site in 1949. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, "Only a few houses remain. Most of them are made of cement, and have simple architectural features: flat roofs and rectangular doors and windows. One has two storeys and another has an 'illiyya. (A guest room on the top floor.) One house, in the southwestern section of the site, is occupied by Jewish residents."[5]