Haifa district · depopulated 1948 · 1 min read
Ayn Ghazal
عين غزال
Ayn Ghazal, on the wooded slopes of Mount Carmel south of Haifa, held out with Jaba and Ijzim in the 'little triangle' until late July 1948. Its people were expelled toward Jenin and Tulkarm, and its lands became moshav farmland and JNF forest.
See Ayn Ghazal on the Atlas32.6319°N · 34.9674°E
Ayn Ghazal — “spring of the gazelle” — lay on the higher western slopes of Mount Carmel, twenty-one kilometers south of Haifa, close to the coastal highway. It was a sizable village of stone houses with a mosque and a school, its people farming grain and olives across some eighteen thousand dunams; the 1945 British survey counted 2,170 residents, all Muslims.
Together with neighboring Jaba and Ijzim, Ayn Ghazal formed what the Israeli command called the “little triangle” — a pocket on the Carmel ridge that resisted after Haifa itself had fallen. The villages beat back an assault in April 1948 and observed the July truce, but on 24–26 July, during Operation Shoter, they were overrun after aerial bombing and street fighting. Most of Ayn Ghazal’s people were expelled across the lines toward Jenin and Tulkarm, where many still live in the region’s refugee camps; some who remained inside the armistice lines were absorbed into nearby villages such as Fureidis and Jisr al-Zarqa, refugees a few kilometers from home.
Moshav Ein Ayala took part of the village lands in 1949, and the JNF’s Ofer forest was planted over more. Ruins survive in the woods — among them the stone steps of the house of the mukhtar, Abd al-Qader Abu Zulaykha — and former residents have returned for decades to post signs and tell the village’s name where the forest signs do not.
Sources
Cited works
3- palestineremembered.com — index(opens in a new tab)https://www.palestineremembered.com/Haifa/Ayn-Ghazal/index.html
- zochrot.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/49381/en
- palquest.org — ayn ghazal(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/place/16926/ayn-ghazal
Connected in the archive
20 connected records20 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 3 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Haifaحيفا
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Ayn Ghazal — "spring of the gazelle" — lay on the higher western slopes of Mount Carmel, twenty-one kilometers south of Haifa, close to the coastal highway.
- Jeninجنين
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Most of Ayn Ghazal's people were expelled across the lines toward Jenin and Tulkarm, where many still live in the region's refugee camps; some who remained inside the armistice lines were absorbed into nearby villages such as Fureidis and Jisr al-Zarqa, refugees a few kilometers from home.
- Mukhtar
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Ruins survive in the woods — among them the stone steps of the house of the mukhtar, Abd al-Qader Abu Zulaykha — and former residents have returned for decades to post signs and tell the village's name where the forest signs do not.
names this place — 3 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Ayn Hawdعين حوض
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The village was attacked together with neighboring Ayn Ghazal on 11 April 1948, and again on 20 May, after Arab snipers allegedly halted traffic on the Tel Aviv–Haifa road; both times the residents stayed put.
- Ijzimإجزم
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Together with Jaba' and Ayn Ghazal, Ijzim formed the 'Little Triangle' whose armed villagers blocked Jewish traffic on the Tel Aviv–Haifa highway for months in 1948.
- Jaba'جبع
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: In early June 1948, Jaba' — together with its neighbors Ijzim and Ayn Ghazal — asked the Israeli forces to open negotiations for surrender; nothing came of the request.
in the same district — 14 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Abu Shushaأبو شوشة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Abu Zurayqأبو زريق
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Al-Kafraynالكفرين
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Al-Sindiyanaالسنديانة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Al-Tiraالطيرة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Balad al-Shaykhبلد الشيخ
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- and 8 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Ayn Ghazal.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/memory/ayn-ghazal.- MLA
“Ayn Ghazal.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/memory/ayn-ghazal. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-ayn-ghazal, title = {Ayn Ghazal}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/memory/ayn-ghazal}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }