31 December 2024
1948 – Partition and Dispossession
Beit Lahia is located 7 kilometers north of Gaza City, bordered by the occupied village of Herbia to the north, Jabalia and Nazleh to the south, Beit Hanoun to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It has an area of 24,500 dunums (2450 hectares), compared to an estimated 38,376 dunams before the 1948 Nakba. Around 100,000 inhabitants lived there in 2021. The city is famous for being Palestine’ s biggest producer of roses and strawberries, an export production.
1967 – Military Occupation
Israeli forces occupied Beit Lahia following the defeat of the Arab armies in the 1967 war, taking full control of the Gaza Strip. In addition to the large number of refugees living in Beit Lahia since 1948, the city welcomed large numbers of Palestinians expelled from their land in 1967.
1993 – Oslo and autonomy
The newly formed Palestinian National Authority, after the Oslo Accords, had access to administer Gaza from within – Even if still occupied militarily by the Israeli regime. Beit Lahia became part of the Northern Governorate, after the adoption of a new administrative division for the Gaza Strip in 1994. The late President Yasser Arafat transformed it into a city and its council into a municipal council.
2000-2022 – Under relentless Bombings
The city has always been subjected to shelling, sabotage and bulldozing by the occupation army due to its location near the direct contact points with the Israeli occupation army camps, especially Al-Atatra neighborhood, which was more than 90% destroyed in 2008.
The 2006 beach massacre:
On June 9 2006, Israeli warships fired at Beit Lahia’s beach, killing eight Palestinians and injuring 200. The images of 11-year-old Huda Ghalia crying over the bodies of her relatives reached the world.
This crime came as part of a series of aggressions, where Israel, as per its habit, started breaking a ceasefire agreement in 2005 by killing Palestinians.
Since October 2023
The Israeli colonial regime has been conducting a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, destroying and erasing people, infrastructure, and land. Northern Gaza has been ethnically cleansed and Beit Lahia has been significantly affected.
As part of its ongoing genocide of Gaza and complete ethnic cleansing of Northern Gaza, the Israeli colonial regime has escalated its targeting of the densely populated town, carrying out bombing, blowing up a number of streets in Beit Lahia, and planting barrel bombs among the houses and hospitals. These areas continue to be subjected to widespread attacks and violations, the most important of which is the direct shelling of Kamal Adwan Hospital and the targeting of its staff by assassinating them during their work using drones and other lethal weapons.