Welcome To Mughr al-Khayt - مغر الخيط (מע'ר אל-ח'יט)

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

Value

Occupation Date

May 2, 1948

Distance From District

4.5 (km) North East of Safad

Elevation

500 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #59 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Operation Yiftach (commanded by the ethnic cleansing champion Yigal Allon)

Attacking Units

The Palmach's First Battalion

Exodus Cause

Military assault by Zionist troops

Village Temains

Mughr al-Khayt was mostly destroyed with the exception of few cement rooms remain standing.

Ethnically Cleansing

Mughr al-Khayt inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	6,141
Jewish	384
Public	102
**Total	6,627

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

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*	Jewish (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation	573	0
Olive Groves	540	0
Planted W/ Cereal	3,742	384
Built up	31	0
Arable	4,315	384
Non-Arable	1,897	0

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1596	94
19th century	300
1922	235
1931	343
1945	490
1948	568
Est. Refugees 1998	3,491

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	73
1948	120

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

The settlements of Chatzor ha-Gelilit and Ro'sh Pinna are nearby village lands

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on the northeastern slope of Mount Kan'an in Upper Galilee, overlooking the Ghawr (the low-lying land around the Jordan) between Lakes Tiberias and al-Hula. The last part of its name, 'al-Khayt,' referred to the relatively level plateau which surrounded it and which was known as ard al-khayt. This region was a volcanic sill that separated the basin around Lake Tiberias, to the north, from that of Lake al-Hula, to the south (see Mansurat al-Khayt, Safad sub-disctrict). A secondary road linked Mughr al-Khayt to a highway that led to Safad and Tiberias. In 1596, Mughr al-Khayt was a village in the nahiya of Jira (liwa' of Safad) with a population of ninety-four. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and fruits, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives. [Hut. and Abd.:178]

In the late nineteenth century, Mughr al-Khayt was a village built of brick and stone. It had a population of about 300 and was known for the many caves in its vicinity. [SWP (1881) I:199] Mughr al-Khayt was actually a 'twin-village,' consisting of two quarters about 100 m apart, spaced parallel to each other in a north-south direction. Its entire population was Muslim. The villagers relied on rainfall to irrigate grain and fruit trees. Their agricultural lands were located on all but the western side of the site. With 540 dunums planted with olive trees in the 1942/43 season, Mughr al-Khayt ranked fifth in olive cultivation among the villages in Safad sub-district. It had two olive presses. In 1944/45 a total of 3,742 dunums were allocated to cereals; 573 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. An archaeological site near the village (known as al-Maghar) contained the remains of houses, rock-hewn tombs, columns, cisterns, and an olive press.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

During Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-district), Palmach units shelled Mughr al-Khayt with mortars during the night of 2 May 1948. This took place just over a week before the final assault on Safad, and Israeli historian Benny Morris says it may have been designed to increase pressure on the city. But the mortar barrage was mainly initiated 'in order that in the end the Arabs would flee from [the village],' in the words of a participating officer. The attack apparently worked, resulting in the evacuation of the village along with two others (Fir'im and Qabba'a) similarly targeted during the same night. It is not clear where the villagers took refuge or what happened to the village itself.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Chatzor ha-Gelilit (201265), founded in 1953 on village lands, is 1 km to the southeast of the village site; Ro'sh Pinna (201263), although not on village lands, is only 2 km south of the site; it was founded in 1882.

Village Today

The site is overgrown with grass and cactuses and littered with stone rubble from destroyed houses. Two cement rooms, built adjacent to one another, still stand and are in relatively good condition. Of the hundreds of olive trees that once grew there, only a few remain. The mountainous land around the site is mostly wooded or used by Israelis as pasture; only a fraction of it is used for growing crops.

Source

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

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