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Welcome To Qatra - قطرة (קטרה)

District of al-Ramla
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Qatra Village - Palestine: : بالقرب مما كان يسمى بالكرتوعة فوق مقبرة القرية-1976
 Gallery (93)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 17, 1948
Distance From District 15 (km) Southwest of al-Ramla
Elevation 50 (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 #42 on the map

View from satellite
Attacking Units Giv'ati Brigade
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains Qatra was mostly destroyed with the exception of its school and few houses remain standing to this date.
Ethnically Cleansing Qatra inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 5,130
Jewish 2,509
Public 4,557
**Total 7,853
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Citrus Groves 391 404
Irrigated & Plantation 215 373
Planted W/ Cereal 4,320 1,639
Built up 26 0
Arable 4,926 2,416
Non-Arable 392 93
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1922 640
1931 822
1945 1,210
1948 1,404
Est. Refugees 1998 8,620
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 175
1948 298
Near By Townswhat's new
Yibna
          ↖
al-Maghar
↑
(N)
'Aqir
↗        
Bashshit  ←
Qatra
→   Shahma
            ↙
Yasur
↓
al-Masmiyya al-Kabira
↘           
al-Mukhayzin
Town's Name Through History During the Roman period Qatra was known by Kidron, and during the British Mandate it was called Qatrat Islam, to distinguish it from the nearby Zionist collony of Qatrat Yahud.
Schools Qatra had an elementary school which was founded in 1923, and in 1945 it had an enrollment of 123 boys and 8 girls.
Nearby Wadies & Rivers The village is situated about 1 km south of Wadi al-Sarar.
Archeological Sites Modern Qatra was built over a Roman and Byzantine site, which produced evidence of mosaic floors, building foundations, and ceramic fragments.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Gedera and Qidron
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on a hilly spot underlain by limestone rock on the central coastal plain, about 1 km south of Wadi al-Sarar. It was linked by a spur to a highway leading to Ramla and other urban centers, and by secondary roads to a number of villages in the vicinity. It has been identified with the Hellenistic town of Kidron, also called Cedron or Gedrus (1 Maccabees 15:39). During the Roman period Kidron fell within the administrative jurisdiction of Azotus Hippenus (lsdud). In the fourth century A.D. it appears to have been a large town. Little is known about the site in the early Islamic period. In 1596, Qatra was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza) with a population of 336. It paid taxes on a number of crops (including wheat, barley, sesame, and fruit), as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives.

Robinson visited Qatra in 1852 and said that it was of considerable size. In the late nineteenth century it was a village built of adobe bricks and surrounded by gardens. During the Mandate it was also referred to as Qatrat Islam, to distinguish it from Qatrat Yahud, the adjacent Jewish fort. The village had a rectangular layout and its houses were built either of adobe brick or cement. A mosque and several shops were located at the village center. The population was predominantly Muslim. A coeducational elementary school was founded in 1923, in which 123 boys and 8 girls were enrolled in the mid-I940s. During the Mandate, when new housing was constructed on what had been farmland, the built-up area expanded toward the southeast.

Agriculture represented the chief economic activity of the villagers, due in part to ample ground water and rich soil. The residents grew an assortment of crops, including grain, vegetables, and fruit, which were rainfed and irrigated from artesian wells. Orchards and cultivated fields surrounded the village on all sides. In 1944/45 a total of 391 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 4,320 dunums were allocated to cereals. Two hundred fifteen dunums were irrigated or used for orchards; 30 dunums of this land were covered by olive trees. Modern Qatra was built over the Roman and Byzantine site, which produced evidence of mosaic floors, building foundations, and ceramic fragments.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The earliest report of Haganah military activity at Qatra was on 13 March 1948, when the Palestinian newspaper Filastin reported a shooting incident involving Arab fruit-pickers working in an orchard that left five workers wounded. A month later, a New York Times story indicated that Haganah squads moved into the police fortress at Qatra on 17 April, after its evacuation by the British.

Israeli historian Benny Morris states that units of the Giv'ati Brigade surrounded the village on 6 May and demanded that the villagers hand over all their weapons. After that, Morris reports the following sequence of events: several dozen armed men tried to break out of the village but were stopped by the Haganah. The villagers handed over several rifles to the Giv'ati Brigade troops, who nevertheless proceeded to move into the village. After that, the soldiers began looting the village and one of them was shot dead by a villager. The Haganah arrested several villagers, and according to Morris, 'within a few days, either intimidated the rest of the villagers into leaving or ordered them to leave.' The official Haganah account agrees that Qatra was occupied around this time but cites the Alexandroni Brigade (probably erroneously) as the occupying force.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Zionists established the settlement of Gedera (129136) just south of the village site in 1884; it is now a town, and many of its buildings are on village land. Qidron (131136) was built on village land in 1949.

Village Today

Only the school and a few deserted houses remain. A number of palm trees and cactuses grow on the site, and the surrounding lands are cultivated by Israelis.

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
Related Links Wikipedia's Page
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More Information مخطط البلد
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Bibliography and References

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Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
Esraa التوم/عليان Toronto, Canada
ابو غريب ريان - غزة, قطرة
ثائر عليان عليان Palestine
akram qtrawi - gaza
bent-falastin - -
فلسطيني - -
ساره الهرباوي - الكويت
ناصر ابوشرف - السعودية
العثمان العثمان الرياض, السعودية
جمال محمد عبدالله القطراوي القدس, فلسطين
محمد مخيرز مخيرز غزه
ahmad>y ابو جمـــــ.....ـــــــ.....ـــــــعــــه -
a.s ابو جمعة -
حموووووود ابو جمعة -
abu joma ابو جمعة القدس
خالد الشامي - ابو ظبي, الامارات
محمد - -
عبدالله مخيرز خانيونس
al_qadry7 - -
الحافي الحافي -
Ehab Naser نصر عمان, الاردن
damo _rajab دامو الاردن, الاردن
قصي ابوشرف عمان
احمد ابو جمعة - -
عصام ابو جمعة ابو جمعة قطاع غزة, قطاع غزة
عماد القطراوي القطراوي عمان, الأردن
اياد محمد - الزرقاء
sweet saja - ontario, canada
ابهاب القادري القادري -
محمود ابو سعيفان - الاردن, الاردن
walla karaja karaja gaza strip, palestine
haissam ابوشرف jordan, jordan
علاء كراجة كراجة -
أبو جمعة أبو جمعة -
أسامة أبو جمعة القدس
ابو المر نصر NSW, Ausrtalia
Eben Damo Damo -
عرفات احمد اسماعيل حسن اسماعيل قرية دهمش
jamal alqatrawi gazastrip, gazastrip
Ali Karajeh - Syria, Syria
Ameen Al-Othman Al-Othman Riyad, KSA
abo al ali alfalana - -
Palsetinian Al_Qaderi amman, sdsd
Riyad abukhater abukhater alkhobar, saudia arabia
Munther Karajeh Karajah (Karajeh) U.A.E., United Arab Emirates
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