Statistic/Fact	Value
Israeli occupation date	February 15, 1948
Distance from district center	37 (km) South West of Haifa
Elevation from the sea	less than 25 (meters)
Map location	See location number #46 on the map
Israeli military operation	Coastal Clearing
Israeli attacking brigade	Palmach troops, headed by Yitzhak Rabin, occupied and destroyed the village.
Israeli acts of terror	Massacre occured by Jewish troops against the town's inhabitants.
Exodus Cause	Expulsion by Jewish troops
Village remains after destruction by Israelis	The village had been mostly destroyed by Yitzhak Rabin with the exception of few houses. It should be also noted that the Nobel Prize winner made sure soon after the 1967 war that the villages of Yalu, 'Imwas, Bayt Nuba, and al-Latrun (South East of al-Ramla) were all completely defaced; we demand restitution!
Ethnically cleansing by Israelis	Qisarya inhabitants were terrorized out of their homes by the Haganah between January 12th and February 15th 1948
Land ownership before occupation	Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums) Arab 20,959 Jewish 874 Public 9,953 Total 31,786
Land usage in 1945	Land Usage Type Arab (Dunum) Jewish (Dunum) Area planted w/ citrus 18 0 Irrigated & Plantation 108 0 Planted W/ Cereal 1,406 787 Built up 28 83 Cultivable 1,532 787 Non-Cultivable 29,352 4
Population before occupation	Year Population 1922 346 1931 706 1945 1,120 (160 Jewish) 1948 1,114 Est. Refugees 1998 6,839
Number of houses	Year Number of houses 1931 143 1948 225
Town's name through history	Original Qisarya port's was called Strato's Tower by the Phoenician, and later on the Romans referred to the village by Caesarea.
Schools	Qisarya had an elementary school for boys, which was founded in 1884 by Ottomans.
Inhabitants place of origin	In 1878, Muslim Bosnians settled in Qisarya after the Austrian invasion of their country.
Notable people from town	The celebrated rhetorician and belle lettrist 'Abd al-Hamid al-Katib ( d. A.D. 750)
Archeological sites	Qisarya contained high and low aqueducts of the city, the theater, parts of the city wall, the hippodrome, storage vaults inside the harbor, and a Crusader fortress.
Exculsive jewish colonies on town's lands	Sedot Yam , Or 'Aqiva, & the Qesarya.
Related Maps	خرائط تفصيلية للمحافظة View from satellite Help us map this town at WikiMapia
More Information	Language External Links Arabic PalGates Hebrew Nakba-Online

Bibliography and References

Town Today

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are:
"Most of the houses have been demolished. The site has been excavated in recent years, largely by Italian, American, and Israeli teams, and turned into a tourist area. Most of the few remaining houses are now restaurants, and the village mosque has been converted into a bar"