Arabic بيت عفا Palestine grid 122/118 Area 5,808 dunams | Subdistrict Gaza Population 700 (1945) | |
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Name meaning The house of Affeh (or chaste) | ||
Bayt 'Affa was a Palestinian village in the Gaza Subdistrict. It was depopulated and destroyed during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 29 km northeast of Gaza and Wadi al-Rana ran east of the village.
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History
The village had a khirba which contained the remains of walls made of ancient columns, uncut stones and a well.
Ottoman era
Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine , Bayt 'Affa appeared in the 1596 tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Gaza of the Liwa of Gazza. It had a population of 26 households, that is 143 inhabitants, all Muslim, who paid taxes on wheat, barley, vine yards and fruit trees.
In 1863, Victor Guérin found it to be a village of 400 inhabitants, surrounded by tobacco and cucumber fields, while an Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 37 houses and a population of 90, though the population count included men, only.
In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's "Survey of Western Palestine", described Bayt 'Affa as resembling Iraq Suwaydan; that is, a moderate-sized adobe village situated on a plain. In addition, Bayt 'Affa was supplied with a well.
British Mandate era
According to the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bayt 'Affa had a population of 422 inhabitants, all Muslims. which had increased in the 1931 census to 462, still all Muslim.
In 1945, there were 700 Muslims, with 5,808 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 14 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 5,657 used for cereals, while 26 dunams were built-up land.
1948, aftermath
The population probably left their homes following the capture of the village by the Israeli army around 9 July 1948. The Egyptian army drove the Israelis out a few days later and the village was not re-taken until Operation Yoav in the second half of October. The village was destroyed.
Yad Natan was established north west of Bayt 'Affa, on land belonging to Iraq Suwaydan.