Beit Hanoun | |
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| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بيت حانون |
| • Latin | Beit Hanun (official) Bayt Hanun (unofficial) |
  Beit Hanoun Location of Beit Hanoun withinPalestine | |
| Coordinates:31°32′30″N34°32′10″E / 31.54167°N 34.53611°E /31.54167; 34.53611 | |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | North Gaza |
| Date of depopulation | Late 2023 |
| Government | |
| • Type | City |
| • Head of Municipality | Mohamad Nazek al-Kafarna |
| Area | |
| • Total | 12,500 dunams (12.5 km2 or 4.8 sq mi) |
| Population (2017)[1] | |
| • Total | 52,237 |
| • Estimate (2023) | 0 |
| • Density | 4,200/km2 (11,000/sq mi) |
| Name meaning | "The house of Hanun"[2] |
| Website | www.beithanoun.ps |
 Gaza |
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 Governance of Gaza |
Beit Hanoun (Arabic:بيت حانون) is a town in the northeasternGaza Strip, with a population of about 32,187 people. It is located within the areas of thePalestinian National Authority and is about 6 kilometers away from theSderot settlement located within the lands of 1948.[4]
Beit Hanoun is an ancient village that had a house for the worship of gods and idols. It was founded by a pagan king, KingHanoun. It was his summer resort. Long wars took place between him and KingJaffa until they killed each other. They made a statue for him according to their customs as a memorial to their great ones and placed it in the house of worship. The village became famous as Beit Hanoun. It was mentioned in the history ofBeersheba in the year 720 BC.Sargon marched with his armies to southernPalestine and subdued thePhilistines. Its people convertedto Islam sincethe Islamic conquest.
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, Beit Hanoun had a population of 885 inhabitants, all Muslim,[5] decreasing in the1931 census to 849, still all Muslims, in 194 houses.[6]
In the1945 statistics, Beit Hanun had a population of 1,680 Muslims and 50 Jews, with 20,025dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[7][8] Of this, 2,768 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 697 were plantations and irrigable land, 13,186 used for cereals,[9] while 59 dunams were built-up land.[10]
According to thePalestinian Authority, 140 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Beit Hanoun from September 2000 to November 2006.[11]
Because of the town's location, Palestinian factions have become accustomed to using the lands adjacent to Beit Hanoun to launch their locally-made rockets, such asQassam rockets. The town of Beit Hanoun was subjected to a great deal of destruction at the hands of theIsraeli Army [en] during the years ofthe Second Intifada, as the Israeli army invaded the town many times, in addition to bulldozing large areas of its agricultural land and repeatedly bombing the area. One of the most famous of these bombings was the bombing carried out by Israeli artillery on8 November2006, which caused a massacre in which 19 civilians were killed (13 of whom were from the same family) and 40 people were wounded. Israel, claimed that the bombing came in response to Palestinian rocket fire from the area, and that civilian casualties occurred as a result of an error in the artillery guidance system.The United Nations set up a fact-finding mission headed byDesmond Tutu, but Israel refused to allow the mission members to come and the investigation was cancelled.
There were twelve secondary, primary and agricultural schools in Beit Hanoun and anagricultural college which is related toal-Azhar University - Gaza. There was a medical center andhospital in the city and several clinics mostly managed by the United Nations.[12] All have been rendered unusable or destroyed during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.
As of mid-December 2023, as a result of the2023 Israel-Hamas War, Beit Hanoun has been entirelydepopulated, and virtually all its structures either destroyed or rendered unusable due to extreme damage.
Beit Hanoun is an agricultural city, as most of its residents depend on agriculture and farming to earn their living. The most famous thing that distinguishes the city is the cultivation of citrus fruits and vegetables, which provide the city and the surrounding areas with the fresh vegetables they need. The area allocated for agriculture constitutes 45% of the total area of the city. But the city has become barren as a result of the ongoing aggression carried out by the Israeli military, as it bulldozed 7,500 acres of the city’s lands during the current uprising, all of which are agricultural lands.
There is an industrial zone in the city covering an area of 261 acres. This zone contains a number of factories and light workshops and employs approximately 200 workers. The most important industries in this zone are (concrete industry - tiles - fabrics - plastics - medicines and cosmetics). There are also many private blacksmith and carpentry workshops in the city. These are simple workshops that carry out daily work and do not operate outside the city.
Beit Hanoun city suffers from multiple environmental problems:
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