Tubas
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Tubas طوباس |
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 View of the city center |
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| Administration : |
 Palestinian Territories
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| Area: | West Bank | ||
| Governorate : | Tubas | ||
| Founded : | 18th century | ||
| Coordinates : | 32 ° 19 ′ N , 35 ° 22 ′ E | ||
| Area : | 295.1 km² | ||
| Residents : | 20,129 (2014) | ||
| Population density : | 68 inhabitants per km² | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 2 | ||
| Community type: | city | ||
| Mayor : | Jamal Abu Mohsin | ||
| Website : | |||
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Tubas ( Arabic طوباس Ṭūbās , Hebrew טובאס Tūbās ) is a Palestinian city in the northeastern West Bank . It is located about 21 kilometers north of Nablus and a few kilometers west of the Jordan . The city is the administrative seat of the Tubas Governorate .
history
Tubas in antiquity
The name Tubas probably comes from the Canaanite Tuba Syoys , which means something like "shining star". The American theologian Edward Robinson identified the city during his research trips through Palestine in the 19th century as the city of Thebez (Hebrew תבץ), which is mentioned in the Bible. The city played an important role in the uprising against the Israelite King Abimelech . However, no sources are known about the city before or after the uprising.
Based on archaeological finds of some olive presses, it is assumed that Tubas must have been inhabited in Palestine at the time of Roman rule. Jerome referred to Thebez as a city located 13 Roman miles east of Nablus.
Ottoman rule
In 1596 the name "Tubas" appears for the first time in Ottoman registers . The population at that time was given as 41 households and 16 bachelors, all Muslims. Today's Tubas was only founded in the late 19th century by members of the Daraghmeh clan who had previously immigrated from the Jordan Valley because of the fertile soils around Tubas. Tubas was one of the largest cities in Sanjak Nablus after Nablus during the Ottoman rule in Palestine . In 1882 a boys' school was built.
Modern tubas
During the First World War , the balance of power in Palestine changed: The region fell to the British in 1917, so Tubas also became part of the British-Palestinian Mandate . Tubas was attributed to the Arabs through the drafting of the 1947 UN partition plan , through which an Arab and a Jewish state should arise. In the First Arab-Israeli War , Tubas served as a military base for the Arab Liberation Army . After the war, Jordan annexed the entire West Bank, including Tubas. The first girls' school was opened in 1955. The city was to remain under Jordanian control until the Six Day War in which Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip .
In 1995 Tubas was handed over to the Palestinians as a result of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip . In 1996, an independent governorate for Tubas, which had previously been administered through the governorate of Nablus, under both Jordanian and Israeli control, was established.
Tubas during the Second Intifada
At the time of the Second Intifada , Tubas was relatively quiet compared to the nearby cities of Jenin or Nablus. However, there have been several incidents in which Hamas, Fatah members or civilians have been killed. On August 31, 2002, an IDF air raid on a car suspected of being part of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade killed five civilians, including two children.
geography
Tubas is located 21 kilometers northeast of Nablus, 4 kilometers west of the Jordan and 63 kilometers east of the Mediterranean . Nearby villages are Aqqaba, Tayasir and Ras al-Far'a. The Fara'a refugee camp is also on the territory of the governorate.
The city has a typical Samaritan climate: hot and dry summers, cold and wet winters. The annual average temperature is 21 ° C.
population
In the first official census by the Palestinian Central Statistical Office (PCBS) in 1997, Tubas had a population of 11,760. 52.7% of the population were under 20 years old. 6.1% of the population were refugees.
In the 2007 PCBS census, Tubas had 16,154 inhabitants, an increase of 33% within ten years. The city makes up about a third of the population of the Tubas governorate. 70% of the residents belong to the Daraghmeh clan. Most of the residents are Muslim. There is a small Greek Orthodox community with about 60 members.
The PCBS estimates the city of Tubas to have 21,487 inhabitants in 2016.
