Najd, Gaza
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Village ruins, 2010
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 Najd
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| Arabic | نجد |
| Name meaning | Highland |
| Subdistrict | Gaza |
| Coordinates | 31°33′02″N 34°35′55″E / 31.55056°N 34.59861°ECoordinates: 31°33′02″N 34°35′55″E / 31.55056°N 34.59861°E |
| Palestine grid | 111/106 |
| Population | 620 (1945) |
| Area | 13,576 dunams 13.6 km² |
| Date of depopulation | 12 May 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Sderot,Or HaNer |
Najd (Arabic: نجد) was a Palestinian Arab village, located 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) northeast of Gaza City. During the British Mandate in Palestine, children from Najd attended school in the nearby village of Simsim. On 13 May 1948, Najd was occupied by the Negev Brigade as part of Operation Barak, and the villagers were expelled and fled to Gaza.
Palmer wrote that the name came of the village came from the word for "Highland", while Socin writes that the name comes from "Beautiful".
Ceramics from the Byzantine period have been found.
Najd was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with the rest of Palestine, and by 1596, the village formed part nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' (district) of Gaza with a population of 215. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and fruit, as well as on goats, beehives and vineyards.
Edward Robinson, who travelled through Palestine in 1838, noted that Najd lay south of a wadi, and described how the villagers were winnowing barley by throwing it into the air against the wind with wooden forks. In 1863 the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village. He described it as being on a small height, and with three hundred inhabitants. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Najd had 24 houses and a population of 56, though the population count included only men.
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