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Welcome To Tall al-Safi - تل الصافي (תל א-צאפי)

District of Hebron
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Tall al-Safi Village - Palestine: : Tel-Alsafi
 Gallery (127)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date July 9, 1948
Distance From District 35 (km) Northwest of Hebron
Elevation 175 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Pre-Nakba Aerial Viewwhat's new
Pre-Nakba Aerial View
Map Location See location #3 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation An-Far
Attacking Units The First Battalion of the Giva'ti Brigade
Defenders Egyptian Muslim Brotherhoods, local Palestinian militias and some Arab Liberation Army volunteers.
Refugees' Migration Routes Refugess headed to the Hebron hills.
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains The village was completely obliterated and defaced.
Ethnically Cleansing Tall al-Safi inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 27,794
Jewish 1,120
Public 11
**Total 28,925
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 696 0
Olive Groves 521 0
Planted W/ Cereal 19,716 1,115
Built up 68 0
Arable 20,412 1,115
Non-Arable 7,325 5
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 484
1922 644
1931 925
1945 1,290
1948 1,496
Est. Refugees 1998 9,190
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses In (1931): 208 (includes three adjacent khirbas)
Near By Townswhat's new
Tall al-Turmus
          ↖
Idnibba
↑
(N)
Mughallis
↗        
Bi'lin  ←
Tall al-Safi
→   'Ajjur
            ↙
Barqusya
↓
Thikrin
↘           
Dayr al-Dubban
Town's Name Through History The Philistine referred to Tall al-Safi by the city of Gath.
Shrines / Maqams The villagers maintained a shrine for a local sage known by al-Shaykh Muhammad.
Nearby Wadies & Rivers Tall al-Safi is situated on the southern banks of Wadi 'Ajjur.
Archeological Sites Tall al-Safi contains a Crusades castle and it also contains walls, burial places, a cave, and carved stones.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 No Israeli settlements on village lands.
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

Tall al-Safi was one of many sites in Palestine with a long history of human habitation; it was occupied from the third millenium B.C. until 1948. A limited excavation which unearthed many pieces of Philistine pottery was conducted on the site for the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1899. This and other evidence indicates that Tall al-Safi was probably the place where Gath, the Philistine city, was located. It appears on the Madaba map (dating from the sixth century B.C.) with the name Saphitha. During the Crusader period a fort was built on the site which was destroyed later by Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin). The Crusaders called it Blanch Garde ('white guard'), doubtless referring to the white rock outcrop that was visible on the east side of the mound. Richard the Lion-Heart was nearly captured while inspecting his troops next to the site. The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228) described it as a fort near Bayt Jibrin in the Ramla sub-disctrict, and the Jerusalem chronicler Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali (d. 1522) noted that Tall al-Safi was within the administrative jurisdiction of Gaza. In 1596, Tall al-Safi was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza), with a population of 484. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, fruit, and sesame, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives.

In the late nineteenth century, Tall al-Safi was a village built of adobe bricks with a well in the valley to the north. The walls of the village houses were built of stones that were held together by mud and mortar. The houses stood along the roads that wound in and out of the village, forming a star-shaped pattern.

Tall al-Safi's population consisted of Muslims. The villagers had a marketplace, a mosque, and a shrine for a Shaykh Muhammad, a local sage. Water for domestic use was drawn from a well. Rainfed agriculture constituted the main source of livelihood for the people of Tall al-Safi, followed by animal husbandry, especially goat and sheep breeding. The cultivated land was uneven in parts and flat in others and was planted in grain, vegetables, and fruits such as grapes, figs, and almonds. Olives were grown on 521 dunums. In 1944, a total of 19,716 dunums was allotted to cereals; 696 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Tall al-Safi's antiquities included the remnants of a Crusaders' castle, walls, burial places, a cave, and carved stones.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The village was a central target of Operation An-Far, launched during the period between the two truces (8-18 July 1948; see Bi'lin, Gaza sub-district). On 7 July, Giv'ati commander Shim'on Avidan issued orders to the First Battalion to take the Tall al-Safi area and 'to expel the refugees encamped in the area, in order to prevent enemy infiltration from the east to this important position.' The position was taken on 9-10 July, and an Israeli army report quoted by Israeli historian Benny Morris later estimated that the capture of Tall al-Safi completely undermined the morale of the surrounding villages.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements on village land.

Village Today

The site is overgrown with wild vegetation, consisting mainly of foxtail and thorny plants, interspersed with cactuses, date-palm and olive trees. There are remnants of a well and the crumbling stone walls of a pool. The surrounding land is planted by Israeli farmers with citrus trees, sunflowers, and grain. A few tents belonging to a group of Bedouin are occasionally pitched nearby.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
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