Gaza district · depopulated 1948 · 2 min read
Al-Jiyya
الجِيَّة
Al-Jiyya — 'water collector,' for the wadis that flooded it, and circular in plan for the same reason — was a grain village of 1,230 known for its cheese, which it sold in Gaza and al-Majdal. It fell with al-Majdal on 4–5 November 1948 at the end of Operation Yoav, and its people probably fled or were expelled into the already overcrowded Gaza Strip. Every trace of the village has been obliterated.
See Al-Jiyya on the Atlas31.6272°N · 34.5975°EAl-Jiyya stood on sandy ground surrounded by hills on the southern coastal plain nineteen kilometers from Gaza. Several wadis came down around it and flooded it from time to time, which may explain both its name — water collector in Arabic — and its circular layout. The village has been identified with a town the Crusader records call Algie. The coastal highway and the railway ran close by on its western side. Its people reported that the village had been ruined at one point and rebuilt by Muhammad Abu Nabbut, governor of Jaffa and Gaza between 1807 and 1818.
The population was Muslim and the village had its own mosque; the children went to school in neighboring Barbara. The villagers put a pump on one of the wells nearby to draw domestic water. They worked mainly in agriculture, planting various grains and especially corn: in 1944/45, 189 dunums were under citrus and bananas and 8,004 under cereals, with twenty-six dunums irrigated or in orchards. Al-Jiyya was also known for its cheese and other dairy products, which were sold in Gaza and in al-Majdal. Among the archaeological remains found there were a stone column and the remains of a Roman mill. The census of 1931 counted 899 people in 188 houses; the 1944/45 survey counted 1,230.
Al-Jiyya fell into Israeli hands at the same time as the city of al-Majdal, on 4–5 November 1948, at the end of Operation Yoav, one of the last major offensives of the war; Zochrot dates the occupation to 5 November and records Benny Morris’s observation that in this operation the Israeli army made far more extensive use of artillery shelling of villages than in earlier ones, alongside air raids. Like most of the population of the area, the villagers of al-Jiyya probably fled or were expelled to the already overcrowded Gaza Strip.
Moshav Ge’a and Beyt Shiqma were established on village lands in 1949 and 1950. All traces of the village have been completely obliterated. Some sycamore trees grow on the site, and Beyt Shiqma has planted cantaloupes on the surrounding land.
Sources
Cited works
2- palquest.org — al jiyya(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/place/16823/al-jiyya
- zochrot.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/49075/en
Connected in the archive
35 connected records35 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Jaffaيافا
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Its people reported that the village had been ruined at one point and rebuilt by Muhammad Abu Nabbut, governor of Jaffa and Gaza between 1807 and 1818.
in the same district — 34 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- 'Iraq al-Manshiyyaعِراق المَنْشِيَّة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Gaza district.
- Al-Falujaالفالوجة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Gaza district.
- Al-Juraالجُورَة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Gaza district.
- Al-Majdalالمجدل
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Gaza district.
- Al-Masmiyya al-Kabiraالمَسْمِيَّة الكَبِيرَة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Gaza district.
- Al-Masmiyya al-Saghiraالمسمية الصغيرة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Gaza district.
- and 28 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Al-Jiyya.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-jiyya.- MLA
“Al-Jiyya.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-jiyya. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-al-jiyya, title = {Al-Jiyya}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-jiyya}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }