Welcome To al-Batani al-Sharqi - البطاني الشرقي (אל-בטאני א-שרקי)

District of Gaza Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
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Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

May 13, 1948

Distance From District

36.5 (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 #6 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Operation Barak (lightening)

Attacking Units

Eighth Battalion of Giv'ati Brigade

Defenders

Egyptian Army, and some local Palestinian militia

Exodus Cause

Military assault by Zionist troops

Village Temains

The village was completely obliterated.

Ethnically Cleansing

al-Batani al-Sharqi inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	5,531
Jewish	70
Public	163
**Total	5,764

**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*	Jewish (Dunum)*
Citrus Groves	319	0
Irrigated & Plantation	474	0
Planted W/ Cereal	4,663	70
Built up	32	0
Arable	5,456	70
Non-Arable	206	0

Population

Year	Population*
1596	39
1922	304
1931	424
1945	650
1948	754
Est. Refugees 1998	4,630

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	85
1948	151

Near By Towns

Barqa ↖		Yasur ↗
al-Batani al-Gharbi ←	al-Batani al-Sharqi	→ Qastina
↙ Bayt Daras	↓ al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya

Schools

al-Batani al-Sharqi shared an elementary school with it sister village al-Batini al-Gharbi.

Places of Warship

One mosque

Archeological Sites

The village contained relics such as a mosaic floor, a basin, the foundations of ancient buildings, and pottery fragments.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

No settlements on village lands.

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on flat terrain on the southern coastal plain and was bordered on the east by Wadi al-Mari. Secondary roads linked it to adjacent villages, such as Yasur and Isdud, on the coastal highway. A military airport was constructed near the village during the Mandate; it was built on flat land to the southwest of al-Batani al-Sharqi, due south of its twin village, al-Batani al-Gharbi. The earliest mention of al-Batani indicated that it was originally founded as a 'ranch' for the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (A.D. 661–680) In 1596, al-Batani al-Sharqi was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza) with a population of thirty-nine. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and fruit, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, and vineyards.

In the late nineteenth century, the village of al-Batani al-Sharqi was situated on low ground and extended from east to west in a rectangular shape. Patches of gardens and a number of wells surrounded the village. Construction expanded westward―the wadi's winter flooding impeded eastward expansion―along the road that linked it to al-Batani al-Gharbi until the distance between the two villages shrank to less than 2 km. Village houses, made of adobe, with wood-and-cane roofs, were built close together along narrow alleys. The two al-Batanis shared an elementary school that was opened in 1947; its initial enrollment was 119 students. The population was Muslim, and the village had a mosque and a number of small shops. The inhabitants worked mainly as grain and citrus farmers. In 1944/45 a total of 319 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 4,663 dunums were allocated to cereals; 474 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Agriculture was both rainfed and irrigated from the many wells on the village land, which also supplied drinking water. In addition to crop cultivation, the community engaged in animal husbandry and poultry raising. An archaeological site in al-Batani al-Sharqi contained relics such as a mosaic floor, a basin, the foundations of ancient buildings, and pottery fragments.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Together with Bashshit and Barqa, the village was occupied by the Haganah's Giv'ati Brigade, just before the end of the British Mandate over Palestine (see al-Batani al-Gharbi, Gaza sub-disctrict). According to historian Benny Morris, al-Batani al-Sharqi fell under Israeli control on 13 May 1948, as Giv'ati expanded southwards in anticipation of an engagement with Egyptian forces. But the History of the War of Independence puts the event almost a full month later, on 10–11 June, and attributes the occupation to the Eighth Battalion of the same brigade. This may mean that the village briefly changed hands in the course of Israeli-Egyptian battles on the southern front and that the Israelis finally captured it before the first truce went into effect on 11 June.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no settlements on village lands.

Village Today

Only a dilapidated police station from the Mandate period survives. It is a complex of three single-storey, concrete flat-roofed buildings. One of the buildings is higher than the other two; all three have rectangular doors and windows. A village street is clearly visible. Cactuses and fig, eucalyptus, and sycamore trees are scattered over the site. Israeli farmers cultivate citrus on the adjacent lands.

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
Abu Ali Qasem	قاسم	-
Eyad Musallam	-	Riyadh, K.S.A
غازي	مصلح	غزة, فلسطين
أبو محمد	مصلح	غزة, فلسطين
ابو سهيل	خلف	اسطنبول, تركيا
ابوخالد ؛يونس؛	منصور	الشارقه, الامارات
ابو عمر	منصور	جرش, الاردن
أبو أنس	حمدان	الوسطى
القاسم	-	فلسطين, م جباليا
f9fadi	odeh	baqaa camp, baqaa camp
يوسف مصلح	مصلح	Berlin
محمد ابراهيم	مصلح	عمان, الاردن
Abdul Raheem	Musleh	Abu Dhabi, UAE
Ali Musallam	Musallam	-
Mohammad Gazal	Gazal	Rhiyad, KSA

All Registered Members

al-Batani al-Sharqi Profiles: Osama Hamdan

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