Beit Hanun
Coordinates: 31 ° 32 ' N , 34 ° 32' E
Beit Hanun ( Arabic بيت حانون, DMG Bait Ḥānūn , also transcribed as Beit Hanoun ) is a city in the North Gaza Governorate , in the northern Gaza Strip , with 49,107 (2014) inhabitants. It is located in the northeast corner of the territory on the border with Israel , about 6 km east of Gaza City , 3 km east of Bait Lahiya and 5 km west of the Israeli city of Sderot . The Erez border crossing at the northern end of the Gaza Strip is 2 km north of the city.
history
The area of today's Gaza Strip was from the 12th century BC. Settled by the Philistines . According to a local legend, the place was the capital of the Philistine King Hanun, who lived in the 8th century BC. Waged war against the Assyrians . The city is named after him (Beit Hanun means "House of Hanun").
In the 12th century, a hill east of the town was the scene of a battle between Ayyubid Egypt and the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem . The victorious Egyptians called the hill Umm al-Nasser ("Mother of Victory") and built a mosque there in 1239, which is one of the most famous in the Gaza Strip. It was badly damaged in fighting in 2006.
In the 20th century the place belonged first to the Ottoman Empire , after its defeat in World War I from 1920 to the British Mandate Palestine . After the mandate expired in 1948, the area was occupied by Egypt and captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War . Since 1994, the place is under the self-government of the Palestinian Authority , in 2005 ended the military occupation by Israel. In 2007, the sales Islamist Hamas in the battle for Gaza , the Fatah from the Gaza Strip.
Military violence in Beit Hanun
During the Palestine War in 1948, the residents of the place fled temporarily after Israeli troops had captured it. It was only after an exchange of territory between Israel and Egypt that Beit Hanun came back under Egyptian control.
Since 2001, various militant Palestinian groups such as For example, the Qassam Brigades hit hundreds of Qassam rockets on Israeli cities such as Sderot and Ashkelon . Israeli tanks have repeatedly invaded the city since the Second Intifada .
On November 7, 2006, as part of Operation Autumn Clouds , the city was the target of an Israeli artillery attack that killed 18 civilians - seven children, four women and seven men - when their homes were hit. In New York, the UN Security Council dealt with the incident. An Israeli army spokesman said the bullets were aimed at a sector from which rockets had previously been fired into Israeli territory.
An artillery attack by the Israel Defense Forces on July 24, 2014 on a United Nations- run school killed 15 people, including 7 children, and injured several.
Development of the population
In a census in the British Mandate Area in 1922, Beit Hanun had a population of 885. A census in 1945 showed 1,730 inhabitants, including 50 Jews . By 1961 the population rose to 3,876. A census by the local authority in 1997 showed 20,780 inhabitants, most of them descendants of refugees .
Infrastructure
Agriculture plays an important role in the city's economy , especially orange plantations.
In Beit Hanun there are twelve elementary and high schools as well as an agricultural institute of the al-Azhar University of Gaza . There is a medical center and hospital, as well as several medical wards operated by the United Nations .
railroad
From 1916 until the closure of the relevant section in the 1970s or 1980s, Beit Hanun was on the Sinai Railway from Beirut via Lod to Cairo (until 1967). Today most of the railroad tracks in the Gaza Strip have been dismantled.
Individual evidence
- ^ Neue Rheinische Zeitung (online): Israel and Palestine before negotiations? , November 14, 2006
- ↑ http://www.beithanoun.ps
- ↑ Die Zeit : Gaza Strip: Israel attacks Beit Hanun again ( memento of the original from May 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 8, 2006
- ^ Welt.de: Bloodbath in the United Nations school in Gaza , July 24, 2014
- ↑ Sky News: Israeli Tank Shells Gaza School: 15 Dead , July 24, 2014
- ↑ a b Welcome To Bayt Hanun
- ↑ Hadawi, Sami. (1970). Gaza District Statistics ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine The Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- ↑ Palestinian Population by Locality and Refugee Status ( Memento of the original from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
- ↑ Our City ( Memento of the original from February 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Beithanoun Municipality.
Web link
- The City website (English)