Basic Information

Origins of the Community

The Palestine Encyclopedia, drawing on Mustafa Murad al-Dabbagh, associates the Nufay'at with Nafi' ibn Marwan of Tha'laba of Tayy and connects the Palestinian community with Nufay'at groups in Egypt.

Palestinian oral-history and community material preserves several differing genealogical traditions and records the later incorporation of families of different origins into the settlement.

Detailed tribal genealogy is therefore treated here as inherited local tradition rather than as a single conclusively established historical lineage.

Location and Geography

The lands of 'Arab al-Nufay'at stretched between the Mediterranean coast and the Hadera area over a relatively narrow strip of coastal plain.

The northern boundary lay approximately 2.5 kilometers south of Wadi al-Mafjar, while the southern boundary lay about one kilometer north of Wadi al-Iskandaruna, adjoining the broader Wadi al-Hawarith plain.

The terrain was generally flat to gently undulating, with dunes and sandy stretches along parts of the coast.

The Palestine Encyclopedia records Tall al-Shaykh Zurraq near the coast as one of the highest local points, approximately 33 meters above sea level.

Birkat 'Ata and Birkat al-Sanakhiyya

Two small ponds were important natural features within the village lands.

Birkat 'Ata, the larger of the two, lay in the southeastern part of the village territory.

Birkat al-Sanakhiyya lay nearer the central part of the lands.

Together with the surrounding wadis, dunes, and cultivated plain, the ponds formed part of the environmental setting in which the community practiced pastoralism and agriculture.

Built Environment

The dwellings of 'Arab al-Nufay'at were dispersed over a relatively broad area, reflecting the community's Bedouin and semi-sedentary history.

Khalidi records that most houses were built of mud and stone.

Palestinian community documentation additionally recalls tents, wooden dwellings, and later houses constructed of stone and cement as settlement became more permanent.

No separate 1931 house count is available because the community was statistically included with Hadera.

Population

Number of Houses

No independently documented 1931 house count exists for 'Arab al-Nufay'at because the population was counted together with Hadera.

No official separate house census was conducted for the village in 1948.

No number of houses is therefore inferred from population estimates.

Land Ownership, 1944/45

The land-ownership statistics require particular care.

PalQuest records a total statistical land unit of 8,937 dunums, with the following official categories:

The figures balance exactly: 7,466 + 1,471 = 8,937 dunums.

The Palestine Encyclopedia similarly states that 7,466 dunums had come under Jewish ownership by 1945.

A simplified Palestine Remembered table reverses the Arab and Jewish columns. Because that conflicts with both PalQuest and the Palestine Encyclopedia, the reversed presentation is not used here.

Land Use, 1944/45

The figures reconcile exactly: 5,902 + 176 = 6,078 cultivable dunums, and 6,078 + 2,859 = 8,937.

Khalidi's prose states that the villagers cultivated 176 dunums of communal land with citrus.

Because some electronic reproductions display inconsistent ownership columns for land use, this article presents the land-use totals without reallocating them among ownership categories where the source is not fully clear.

Economy

The economy depended primarily on livestock raising and agriculture.

Cereals and citrus were the main crops documented by Khalidi, while Palestinian community sources additionally mention vegetables, carob, figs, and other produce.

Animal husbandry remained particularly important because of the community's pastoral and semi-sedentary background.

Education

No formal government school is documented at 'Arab al-Nufay'at during the British Mandate.

Palestinian local documentation states that elementary instruction was provided through the traditional kuttab system.

No securely documented pupil or teacher totals are available.

Religious Buildings and Services

Khalidi and PalQuest do not independently document a specific mosque or shrine within 'Arab al-Nufay'at.

Palestinian sources also describe public services in the community as very limited.

No particular religious structure is therefore inferred without direct documentation.

Archaeological Remains

Khalidi records that the village lands contained a number of historic sites and khirbas.

His short village profile does not name or date them individually.

Tall al-Shaykh Zurraq appears in the Palestine Encyclopedia primarily as a prominent topographical feature near the coast.

No specific archaeological period is assigned to the village's unnamed remains without more detailed evidence.

Military Context in Spring 1948

During the spring of 1948, Palestinian communities along the coastal plain south of Haifa were increasingly subjected to military pressure and evacuation.

'Arab al-Nufay'at, 'Arab al-Fuqara, and 'Arab Zahrat al-Dumayri were among the communities that received direct Haganah evacuation orders on the same date.

Some secondary sources describe this regional policy as “Coastal Clearing,” but no securely established formal operation name is attached to 'Arab al-Nufay'at in Khalidi's village-level account.

Depopulation – 10 April 1948

On 10 April 1948, the Haganah ordered the inhabitants of 'Arab al-Nufay'at to leave.

This date is supported not only by later village histories but by a contemporary intelligence report from 1948 reproduced by PalQuest.

The report records that the entire population received an evacuation order from the Haganah and that the village was empty.

It also records the villagers' destinations as Baqa al-Gharbiyya and Jit.

Military Unit and Operation

The military organization specifically documented at village level is the Haganah.

No brigade or battalion is independently identified in Khalidi or PalQuest as carrying out the evacuation order at 'Arab al-Nufay'at.

Palestine Remembered lists “Coastal Clearing” only as a possible operation.

The most accurate formulation is therefore: forced evacuation by direct Haganah order within the broader clearing of Palestinian communities from the coastal plain; no village-specific subordinate unit or formally documented operation name is established.

Cause of Depopulation

The cause of depopulation is unusually clear in the surviving documentation.

The Haganah issued a direct order requiring the entire population to leave, and the contemporary report records the village as empty on 10 April.

The cause should therefore not be reduced to generalized fear or the indirect effect of a neighboring village's fall.

The most accurate description is: forced depopulation through a direct Haganah evacuation order.

Destruction

The destruction of 'Arab al-Nufay'at did not occur on the same day as the population's removal.

Khalidi dates the demolition of the village to late April and early May 1948.

Destruction was extensive enough that later fieldwork identified only one surviving village house.

The 10 April depopulation and subsequent demolition should therefore be treated as separate historical stages.

Ethnic Cleansing in Source Classification

Palestine Remembered classifies 'Arab al-Nufay'at using the term “complete ethnic cleansing.” The phrase is retained here only as an attributed source classification.

The more specifically documented facts are the Haganah order requiring the entire population to leave, the emptying of the village on 10 April, displacement toward Baqa al-Gharbiyya and Jit, destruction of most buildings in late April and early May, and the absence of permanent collective Palestinian return.

Occupation and Depopulation Chronology

Israeli Settlements on 'Arab al-Nufay'at's Lands

Mikhmoret was established in 1945 on the village lands south of the Palestinian settlement site.

Because it predates the Nakba, it should be classified as a pre-1948 settlement on village lands rather than as a settlement established after depopulation.

Khalidi and PalQuest do not identify a new post-1948 Israeli settlement independently founded on 'Arab al-Nufay'at's lands.

The Palestine Encyclopedia and another Palestinian source state that portions of the former lands later became incorporated into the Giv'at Olga neighborhood of Hadera.

Because this attribution does not appear in Khalidi's settlement list, Giv'at Olga is treated here as a secondary Palestinian claim concerning later urban expansion over part of the village lands, rather than as an equally secure cadastral identification.

'Arab al-Nufay'at Today

According to the field description used by Walid Khalidi before the publication of All That Remains in 1992, only one surviving house and an old mulberry tree remained from the Palestinian village.

The house was still inhabited by an Arab family at the time of the survey.

A large Israeli military camp occupied a substantial area near the former village site.

The remaining surrounding lands were cultivated with melons, wheat, and barley, while mulberry and eucalyptus trees grew nearby.

PalQuest reproduces a photograph of the surviving house taken by Hasan Hawari in May 1987.

This should be understood as historical field documentation from before 1992 rather than as a comprehensive archaeological or cadastral survey of the entire village territory in 2026.

Sources

• PalQuest – Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question: 'Arab al-Nufay'at
• PalQuest – Israeli Intelligence Report on the Depopulation of Palestine, 30 June 1948
• Palestine Remembered – 'Arab al-Nufay'at, Haifa Subdistrict
• Palestine Remembered – 'Arab al-Nufay'at entry from Walid Khalidi's All That Remains
• Palestine Encyclopedia – 'Arab al-Nufay'at, drawing on Mustafa Murad al-Dabbagh
• Palestinian Villages Encyclopedia – 'Arab al-Nufay'at