Beit Hanoun
| Beit Hanoun | ||
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| Other transcription(s) | ||
| • Arabic | بيت حانون | |
| • Also spelled | Beit Hanun (official) Bayt Hanun (unofficial) |
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 Beit Hanoun
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| Coordinates: 31°32′29.23″N 34°32′10.60″E / 31.5414528°N 34.5362778°ECoordinates: 31°32′29.23″N 34°32′10.60″E / 31.5414528°N 34.5362778°E | ||
| Palestine grid | 105/105 | |
| Governorate | North Gaza | |
| Government | ||
| • Type | City | |
| • Head of Municipality | Mohamad Nazek al-Kafarna | |
| Area | ||
| • Jurisdiction | 12,500 dunams (12.5 km2 or 4.8 sq mi) | |
| Population (2006) | ||
| • Jurisdiction | 32,187 | |
| Name meaning | "The house of Hanun" | |
| Website | www.beithanoun.ps | |
Beit Hanoun or Beit Hanun (Arabic: بيت حانون) is a city on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 32,187 in mid-2006. It is administered by the Hamas administration. It is located by the Hanoun stream, just 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) away from the Israeli town of Sderot. After 19 Palestinian civilians died during shelling by the IDF in 2006, the United Nations appointed a fact-finding commission, to be led by Desmond Tutu, to investigate if the shelling constituted a war crime; but the investigation was cancelled due to the lack of Israeli cooperation.
According to a legend, Beit Hanoun was the capital of the Philistine King Hanoun, who fought the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE.
The Ayyubids defeated the Crusaders at a battle in Umm al-Nasser hill, just west of Beit Hanoun in 1239, and built the Umm al-Naser Mosque ("Mother of Victories Mosque") there in commemoration of the victory. A Mamluk post office was located in Beit Hanoun as well.
Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, Beit Hanoun appeared in the 1596 tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Gaza of the Liwa of Gazza. It had a population of 36 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and/ or beehives.Pierre Jacotin named the village Deir Naroun on his map from 1799.
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