Welcome To Qastina - قسطينة (קסטינה)

District of Gaza Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
	Gallery (19)

Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

July 9, 1948

Distance From District

38 (km) North East of Gaza

Elevation

50 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Pre-Nakba Aerial View

Map Location

See location #9 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Possibly Operation An Far

Attacking Units

Giv'ati Brigade

Defenders

Egyptian Army, and local Palestinian militia.

Exodus Cause

Military assault by Zionist troops

Village Temains

The village has been completely destroyed, and only house rubble left behind.

Ethnically Cleansing

Qastina inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	8,438
Jewish	3,135
Public	446
**Total	12,019

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*	Jewish (Dunum)*
Citrus Groves	235	0
Irrigated & Plantation	770	0
Planted W/ Cereal	7,317	3,069
Built up	37	66
Arable	8,322	3,069
Non-Arable	525	0

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1596	385
1922	604
1931	593
1945	890
1948	1,032
Est. Refugees 1998	6,340

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	147
1948	255

Near By Towns

Yasur ↖		al-Masmiyya al-Kabira ↗
al-Batani al-Sharqi ←	Qastina
↙ al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya	↓ al-Jaladiyya	↘ Tall al-Turmus

Schools

Qastina had an elementary school for boys founded in 1936, and in 1945 it had an enrollment of 161 students. The students of the nearby village of Tall al-Turmus used to attend the same school too.

Places of Warship

One mosque

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Kefar Warburg, 'Arugot, Kefar Achirn, and Qiryat Mal'akhi.

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on an elevated spot in a generally flat area on the coastal plain, on the highway between the city of al-Majdal, to the southwest, and the Jerusalem–Jaffa highway. The British military camp, Beer Tuvia, was located 3 km southwest of the village. In 1596, Qastina was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza), with a population of 385. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, sesame, and fruits, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, and vineyards. The Syrian Sufi traveler Mustafa al-Bakri al-Siddiqi, who traveled in the region in the mid-eighteenth century, reported passing through Qastina on his way to al-Masmiyya.

In the late nineteenth century, the village of Qastina was laid out in a northwest-southeast direction on flat ground. It had adobe brick structures, a well, and gardens. It had a mosque and an elementary school, founded in 1936 and shared with the neighboring village of Tall al-Turmus, to the southeast. In the mid-1940s, the number of students enrolled in the school was 161. The inhabitants, who were Muslim, obtained water for domestic use from wells. Agriculture constituted the backbone of the economy, with grain and citrus being the most important crops. In 1944/45 a total of 235 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 7,317 dunums were allocated to cereals; 770 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. In addition, people raised animals and poultry, and worked in the British military camp.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Qastina was occupied around 9 July 1948, shortly after the end of the first truce, by the Giv'ati Brigade, when it advanced southwards into Egyptian-controlled territory. During the ten-day period between the two truces (8–18 July), the Brigade succeeded in seizing an area comprising at least sixteen villages, all of whose inhabitants were displaced. The residents of Qastina, like those of nearby al-Masmiyya, were probably driven south towards Gaza, rather than east to the Hebron area. Operational orders issued by Brigade commander Shim'on Avidan had called for civilians to be expelled; however, the inhabitants of this area fled almost as soon as the operation began, according to a later Israeli army report. The village had earlier been mentioned in Plan Dalet as one of the villages to be occupied by the Giv'ati Brigade.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Jewish immigrants from Germany and central and eastern Europe established Kefar Warburg on what was traditionally village land, 3 km southwest of the village site, in 1939. One year after the destruction of Qastina, in 1949, the Zionists established the settlements of Arugot and Kefar Achim . Avigdor was founded in 1950 and Qiryat Mal'akhi in 1951, both on village lands. Qiryat Mal'akhi was named after the author of the Old Testament Book of Malachi (Mal'akhi in Hebrew) and after the community of Los Angeles (mal'akhim is Hebrew for angels) because of its support for Israel.

Village Today

All that remains is the debris of houses strewn across the site. The research team investigating the current status of the depopulated villages visited the site and found it overgrown with bushes and tall grasses that were about 2 m high. There was also a thick undergrowth of khubbayza, or mallow, a wild plant cooked as a vegetable in Palestinian peasant cuisine. Later, when a photographer returned to the site, he discovered that this undergrowth had recently been burned off. Other features of the site have not changed: a dirt road still passes through the center of the site, which is covered with eucalyptus trees.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.

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

Pre-Nakba Aerial view of the village / صورة من الجو للقرية اخذت قبل النكبة

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
Leena Khereis	خريس	Edmonton, Canada
Ayman Khrais	-	Palestine
أحمد نوفل	-	-
Omar Samra	-	Palestine, Palestine
Abd alrhman Rayyan	Rayyan	Amman, Jordan
أبو أيسر	أل خريس	خان يونس
أحمد إسماعيل حسن خريس	خريس	رفح - تل السلطان, رفح - تل السلطان
آحفآد خليل خريس	-	الوسطي _ غزة, الوسطي _ غزة
mohamed lotfi yaseen alkhateeb	-	الدوحه, قطر
حسام شحادة	شحاده	الرياض, السعودية
سعدي شحاده	شحاده	الكويت, الكويت
Ahmed nehad El-athamna	أحمد نهاد العثامنة	Oslo, Norway
محمد عبد الواحد بوادي	-	-
mahmoud	العثامنة	رفح, فلسطين
أبو عبد الحكيم	بوادي	الدنمارك
عبد الحكيم بوادي	بوادي	الدنمارك
احمد خريس	-	غزة, فلسطين
إبراهيم عبدالله أحمد	بوادي	الرياض
محمود عبدالهادي بوادي	بوادي	riyadh
Mohammed Shehadeh	-	Amman, Jordan
محمد عايش (ابو صالح)	ابوالعلا	NRW-Deutschland, Germany
Shereen Assaf	عبيدة عساف	-
عمر عبيده	عبيده عساف	Australia, Australia
Nisreen elhila	الحيلة	المدينة
ehab elhila	elhila	vic, vic
Hoda Elhila	Elhila	Victoria, Australia
حاتم يونس عوده	خليل	الرياض , السعودية
Nidal Bahri	-	IL, USA
Maha Radwan El-athamnah	El-athamnah	-
Mohamed Shehada	Shehada	UAE
حسن عرفة	-	خانيونس, خانيونس
sofyan al_athamna	العثامنه	-
bajjeess	albajjeh	az zarqa
bajjeess	albajjeh	az zarqa
MOHAMAD RADWAN AL ATHAMNA	العثامنة	Riyadh
Khetam Radwan Alathamena	العثامنة	Riyadh, Saudia Arabia
يحيى محمود العثامنة	العثامنة	غزه, فلسطين
محمد طلال العثامنة	العثامنة	غزه, فلسطين
المهندس	العثامنه	الزرقاء, الاردن
ابو عاهد	الخطيب	قطر, قطر
دانا يوسف العثامنة	العثامنة	خانيونس, خانيونس
Adnan ayman alathamna	العثامنة	خانيونس, القسطينة
عدنان العثامنة	العثامنة	خانيونس
محمد يوسف العثامنة	العثامنة	خانيونس, خانيونس
المختار يوسف العثامنة	العثامنة	خانيونس
Ismail Elhila	Elhila	Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia
Eiad Alathamna	alathamna	-
Yasser Fathi Elhila	Elhila	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Anas Rayan	rayan	hebroun\ aroub camb, palestine
Saleh Al-Athamna	AL ATHAMNA	Ontario, Canada
Nabil Ismail Saleh Youssef Al Athamnah	Al Athamnah	Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
خالد المولد	المولد	-
Mohammad Mahmoud Alathamena	Alathamena	-
Mohamed Elhila	الحيله	USA
إبراهيم الحيلة	الحيلة	الرياض, السعودية
Khalid Alathamena	-	-
Ulf Carmesund	-	-, Sweden
Abu Adnan	AlAthamnah	palestine, palestine
Amal Radwan Al athamna	Al athaman	TX, USA
Augusto Medina	-	-
Abu Mohannad	THE Al Athamna	-
عبدالقادر العثامنة	-	-
Randa El-athamna	-	-
Ahmed Shehada	-	-

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