Kawfakha | |
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![]() Old mosque of Kawfakha, in 2000, presently used as a storehouse
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Arabic | كوفخة |
Also spelled | Kaufakha |
Subdistrict | Gaza |
Coordinates | 31°28′42″N 34°39′42″E / 31.47833°N 34.66167°ECoordinates: 31°28′42″N 34°39′42″E / 31.47833°N 34.66167°E |
Palestine grid | 117/098 |
Population | 500 (1945) |
Area | 8,569 dunams |
Date of depopulation | May 25, 1948 |
Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Current localities | Nir Akiva |
Kawfakha' (Arabic: كوفخة) was a Palestinian village located 18 kilometers (11 mi) east of Gaza that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The village stood on a stretch of sandy, rolling land in the northern Negev. A network of secondary roads linked it to the highways between Gaza and Julis, which ran parallel to the coastal highway.
The village contained ruins of Khirbat al-Kawfakha which included remnants of cisterns, marble columns, a Corinthian capital, mosaic walkways, and pottery.
Kawfakwa was founded in the late nineteenth century by Gaza city residents who came to cultivate the surrounding land. In its center was a mosque that was well known in the region, built in the reign of the Ottoman sultan Abd al-Hamid II (1876–1909).
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufakha had a population of 203 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 317, still all Muslims, in 56 houses.
The village had an elementary school and some small shops. The villagers obtained water for domestic use from two wells inside the village. The land on the northern side of the village was planted with fruit trees, such as apricots, olives, almonds, grapes and figs. On the other sides of the village grain was grown.