Safad district · depopulated 1948 · 3 min read
Qaytiyya
قيطية
Qaytiyya lay between the Hasibani and the Dan in the northern Hula plain, twenty-eight kilometres from Safad, with its own grain mill on the bank of the Dan and 4,465 of its 5,390 dunums under irrigation or orchard. Its people left on 19 May 1948 under the psychological-warfare campaign of Operation Yiftach — but not all of them. At midnight on 5 June 1949 army trucks encircled the village and its remaining residents were rounded up and dumped, with those of al-Ja'una and al-Khisas, on a bare hillside near Akbara.
See Qaytiyya on the Atlas33.1998°N · 35.6130°EQaytiyya was built on flat land between the Hasibani and the Dan, both tributaries of the Jordan, in the northern part of the Hula plain at about 75 metres, twenty-eight kilometres from Safad. A secondary road linked it to al-Khalisa, three kilometres to the west on the highway down to Safad. The village was divided into two quarters — an eastern quarter on the west bank of the Dan and a western quarter on the east bank of the Hasibani — the houses of the eastern quarter clustered together, those of the western more widely dispersed. The Survey of Western Palestine described it in 1881 as a village of eighty Muslims built of adobe and surrounded by streams, occupied during spring and harvest.
Its population was predominantly Muslim: 824 in 163 houses in the 1931 census, 940 in the 1945 statistics. The villagers lived mainly by agriculture and animal husbandry. Of their 5,390 dunums, 4,465 were irrigated or planted in orchards, 44 were allocated to cereals and 19 to citrus and bananas. The village had its own grain mill on the bank of the Dan.
The displacement of the people of Qaytiyya is attributed to the campaign of psychological warfare the Haganah waged as part of Operation Yiftach. Benny Morris writes that the villagers left on 19 May 1948; other references give the depopulation to the Palmach’s First Battalion on that date. But at least some of the people of Qaytiyya were still in their village more than a year later. At midnight on 5 June 1949 army trucks encircled the village and Israeli troops swept down on it, rounded up the residents and dumped them, together with the villagers of al-Ja’una and al-Khisas, on a bare hillside near Akbara, south of Safad.
The raid on the three villages caused a stir among some left-wing Israelis. A Knesset member from Mapam said the Palestinian villagers had been treated “with brutality… with kicks, curses and maltreatment.” The army justified itself by claiming it had learned that Syrian intelligence was trying to win the allegiance of the villagers and, in the words of an intelligence official, use them against us; for that reason it was important to move them away from the border. The prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, said he found the military’s reasons sufficient. It is not clear what became of the people of Qaytiyya afterwards, but Morris records that conditions at Akbara, where they had been left, remained bad for years.
Kefar Blum was founded to the south of the village in 1943 on land belonging to Qaytiyya. Beyt Hillel, founded in 1940, stood closer to the village site but not on its land, though when it was extended in 1948 it may have taken in some. Only a few stones from the old village are still visible. The surrounding land is cultivated, except for a small section that holds stone rubble and is overgrown with thorny plants and eucalyptus.
Sources
Cited works
3- palquest.org — qaytiyya(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/place/17117/qaytiyya
- zochrot.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/49451/en
- en.wikipedia.org — Qaytiyya(opens in a new tab)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaytiyya
Connected in the archive
18 connected records18 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.
- Al-Ja'unaالجاعونة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: At midnight on 5 June 1949 army trucks encircled the village and Israeli troops swept down on it, rounded up the residents and dumped them, together with the villagers of al-Ja'una and al-Khisas, on a bare hillside near Akbara, south of Safad.
- Al-Khalisaالخالصة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: A secondary road linked it to al-Khalisa, three kilometres to the west on the highway down to Safad.
- Safedصفد
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Qaytiyya was built on flat land between the Hasibani and the Dan, both tributaries of the Jordan, in the northern part of the Hula plain at about 75 metres, twenty-eight kilometres from Safad.
names this place — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Al-Salihiyyaالصالحية
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Kefar Blum, founded in 1943, lies just to the northwest on land that traditionally belonged to Qaytiyya.
in the same district — 14 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Al-'Abisiyyaالعابسية
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Dawwaraالدوارة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Khisasالخصاص
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Na'imaالناعمة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Zuq al-Tahtaniالزوق التحتاني
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Almaعلما
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- and 8 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Qaytiyya.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/memory/qaytiyya.- MLA
“Qaytiyya.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/memory/qaytiyya. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-qaytiyya, title = {Qaytiyya}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/memory/qaytiyya}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }