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Welcome To 'Arab Suqrir - عرب صقرير (ابو سويرح) (אבו סוירה)

District of Gaza
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for 'Arab Suqrir Village - Palestine: : Village House In 1987
 Gallery (36)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 25, 1948
Distance From District 38 (km) North East of Gaza
Elevation 25 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #1 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Barak (lightening)
Attacking Units Giv'ati Brigade
Defenders Egyptian Army
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains The village was completely destroyed with the exception of two houses remain standing.
Ethnically Cleansing 'Arab Suqrir inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 12,270
Jewish 0
Public 27,954
**Total 40,224
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Citrus Groves 583
Irrigated & Plantation 489
Planted W/ Cereal 15,532
Arable 16,604
Non-Arable 23,620
Population
Year Population*
1596 55
1931 530
1945 390
1948 452
Est. Refugees 1998 2,778
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Near By Townswhat's new
al-Nabi Rubin
↑
(N)
Yibna
↗        
Mediterranean  ←
'Arab Suqrir
→   Bashshit
↓
Isdud
↘           
Barqa
Town's Name Through History The Canaanites referred to 'Arab Suqrir by Shakrun.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Nir Gallirn & Bene Darom
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated in a flat area on the coastal plain northeast of Isdud. Its name may have been a corruption of the Canaanite name Shakrun. In 1596, Arab Suqrir was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza), with a population of fifty-five. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and sesame, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives. The original inhabitants of Arab Suqrir were Muslim nomads who gradually settled on the site, built stone houses, and became farmers. In 1944/45 a total of 583 dunums of their land was devoted to citrus and bananas and 10,232 dunums were allotted to cereals; 489 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Arab Suqrir was the subject of the first Haganah operational proposal to level a village, made on 11 January 1948. An intelligence report of that date recommends: 'The village should be destroyed completely and some males from the same village should be murdered.' Israeli historian Benny Morris states that the report was issued as a result of the 'murder on 9 January of 11 Haganah scouts.' But press accounts of the time tell a different story. The New York Times quoted police sources as saying that a party of Jews from nearby Yavne attacked 'Wadi Sukrayr' with gunfire on 9 January, adding that the police arrived on the scene and counterattacked. Eight Arabs and twelve Jews were reported killed, the 'most costly engagement' of the day. The Jaffa-based newspaper Filastin also reported an attack on the village on 9 January. Morris does not mention whether the 'retaliatory' raid was ever carried out, but an Associated Press dispatch on 25 January stated that members of the Haganah had bombed fifteen or twenty houses in an Arab village near Yibna. The report gave no casualty figures, but quoted informants as saying that the dawn bombing was designed to avenge attacks on Jewish convoys.

The coastal strip where the village is located probably came under Haganah control at the same time as neighboring Bashshit, around 10 May 1948. This whole area was occupied by the Haganah's Giv'ati Brigade as it extended its control southwards and westwards during Operation Barak . But Morris writes that the village was not physically destroyed until 24–28 August, during Operation Nikayon ('Cleansing'), also conducted by the Giv'ati Brigade. The Brigade made use of the second truce of the war 'to expel all unarmed [persons] from [the area],' according to the operational orders. A Giv'ati intelligence officer claimed that most inhabitants had left by the time the orders were implemented, so the units blew up stone houses and burned huts, and 'ten Arabs who tried to escape were killed.'

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Two settlements are located on village lands: Nir Gallim, established in 1949, and Ashdod, established in 1955. Bene Darom, established in 1949, is close by to the east, on lands that belonged to the city of Isdud.

Village Today

The site is overgrown with weeds, a few cactuses, and trees. Two houses remain standing. One of them is in a citrus grove and has a concrete frame and cinder block walls. On the top of its flat roof there is an 'illiyya (a single master bedroom or guest room on the top floor, usually found in the houses of wealthier villagers as a symbol of wealth and prestige ). A ladder leans against the dilapidated side wall.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
Help us map this town at WikiMapia
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Bibliography and References

Want to browse more? 80,000 pictures were grouped in these gallaries:

Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
عبد الله ابو سويرح الرياض, السعودية
القعقاع ابو سويرح غزة
ابومازن - -
sokrer sokrer amman, jordan
الباحث حسام أبو العوايد العامري قبيلة بني عامر -
أم عمار أرجلاوي -
EABUMAWEES - -
تفيدة - الدوحه, عمان
ابوهادي - -
بنت العرب أبوسويرح -
أبو معاذ أبو سويرح دبي, الإمارات
معاذ حسام محمد حمدان - طولكرم, كفر جمال
سلام ابوسويرح ابوسويرح -
niddal ابوسويرح -
أحمد جميل كامل أبوسويرح - -
داوود ابومويس ابومويس جنين, المغير
احمد سالم - -
أحمد أبو حزين - غزة, فلسطين
Monther Mufleh Abu Swaireh - -
سعد الدين ابو سويرح ابو سويرح غزة, Palestine
ma xueqing - P.R.China, P.R.China
HAZEM ABU_SWAIREH ABU_SWAIREH SAUDIA ARABIA, saudi arabia
igsaan davids - -
WeDaS abu swaireh -
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