Umm Khalid
| Umm Khalid | |
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Ancient sycamore tree, Umm Khalid
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 Umm Khalid
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| Arabic | أم خالد |
| Also spelled | Mukhalid, Castellare Rogerii Longobardi |
| Subdistrict | Tulkarm |
| Coordinates | 32°19′51″N 34°51′55″E / 32.33083°N 34.86528°ECoordinates: 32°19′51″N 34°51′55″E / 32.33083°N 34.86528°E |
| Palestine grid | 137/192 |
| Population | 970 (1945) |
| Area | 2,894 dunams |
| Date of depopulation | 20 March 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
| Current localities | Netanya |
Umm Khalid (Arabic: أم خالد), also called Mukhalid, was a Palestinian village in the Tulkarm Subdistrict, 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) west of Tulkarm. It was an ancient site in the central coastline of what is now the city of Netanya, Israel.
Flint tools found around the area suggest that the site might have been inhabited since prehistoric times. Remnants of buildings, installations and burial caves dating from the first century BCE have been found. The village site contained the Lombard Castle of Roger, built by the Crusaders. The building was mentioned in 1135, mostly destroyed c. 1948, and partly excavated in 1985/86. It appears to have been continuously in use from the Crusader period until 1948. Archaeological findings around the village included the remains of towers, fortresses, wells, reservoirs, cisterns, and pottery.
The village was named Omm Kaled on a 1799 map of the area, and the village was razed by the troops of Napoleon during their return to Egypt after their failed siege of Acre in 1799.
The British traveller James Silk Buckingham, who passed through the village ("El Mukalid") in 1816, described it as still "rather poor", while noting that the village resembled an Egyptian one in form and constructions of its huts.
In the 19th century, Umm Khalid was a rest area between al-Tantura and Ras al-Ayn, where Ottoman officials stopped and received dignitaries. When Mary Rogers, the sister of the British vice-consul in Haifa, visited the Umm Khalid in 1856 she described it as a flourishing village, and noted the extensive melon gardens to the west of the village.
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Wikipedia