01In brief
Ayn Ghazal (also rendered ‘Ein Ghazal) was an Arab village in the Haifa Sub-District of Mandatory Palestine, south of Haifa. The 1945 statistics listed 2,170 Arab residents and 18,079 dunums of land, including 14,628 dunums under Arab ownership. During the violence preceding and accompanying the War of Independence, the village was attacked several times. A June 30, 1948 Haganah research report recorded Ayn Ghazal as partially evacuated on April 25, attributing this to the "Haifa action effect" and recording the evacuees’ trajectory as "To the Triangle."
02Overview
Ayn Ghazal was an Arab village in the Haifa Sub-District, south of Haifa.[3] The 1945 Palestine Village Statistics recorded its total land area at 18,079 dunums: 14,628 under Arab ownership, 424 under Jewish ownership, and 3,027 under public ownership.[1] Arab-owned land was therefore the largest category, while smaller portions were recorded as Jewish-owned or public.
03History
During violence preceding and accompanying the War of Independence, Ayn Ghazal was the subject of several reported attacks. Hugh Humphries’s chronology states that an attack on March 14, 1948 demolished four houses, killed one Palestinian woman, and wounded five men. It also reports that an April 11 attack on Ayn Ghazal and neighboring Ein Hawd by Zionist forces was repulsed.[3]
A June 30, 1948 Haganah research report recorded Ayn Ghazal as partially evacuated on April 25 and gave the cause as "Haifa action effect," with the trajectory "To the Triangle." The entry did not record a full evacuation.[2]
Humphries’s entry for June 18 states that another attack was repulsed and that the village was occupied in July, "when mass killings took place." The chronology does not provide a separate detailed July account, and no other source in the research record independently corroborates the reported killings.[3]
04Demographics
The 1945 Palestine Village Statistics estimated Ayn Ghazal’s population at 2,170 Arabs at the end of 1944 and recorded no Jewish residents.[1] A Haganah research report dated June 30, 1948 separately listed the village’s "population during normal times" as 2,410.[2] The two figures use different reference contexts and should be reported separately. The 1948 report cautions that its estimates carry a 10–15% margin of error, with a potentially greater margin for populations outside the State of Israel.[2]
Sources
- 1Internet Archive, Village Statistics 1945: A Classification of Land and Area Ownership in Palestine, accessed on September 29, 2026.
- 2Internet Archive, Migration of Eretz Yisrael Arabs between December 1, 1947 and June 1, 1948, accessed on September 29, 2026.
- 3Internet Archive, Full text of "Countdown To Catastrophe Palestine 1948 A Daily Chronology Hugh Humphries", accessed on September 29, 2026.
IsraelPedia Question & Answers
What was Ayn Ghazal?
Ayn Ghazal was an Arab village in the Haifa Sub-District of Mandatory Palestine, located south of Haifa. The 1945 statistics recorded 2,170 Arab residents and a total land area of 18,079 dunums, of which 14,628 dunums were under Arab ownership, making Arab-owned land the largest category. Smaller portions were recorded as Jewish-owned or public land.
What attacks did Ayn Ghazal experience during the War of Independence?
Ayn Ghazal was the subject of several reported attacks during the violence preceding and accompanying the War of Independence. According to Hugh Humphries's chronology, an attack on March 14, 1948 demolished four houses, killed one Palestinian woman, and wounded five men. An April 11 attack on Ayn Ghazal and neighboring Ein Hawd by Zionist forces was reported to have been repulsed, as was another attack on June 18.
Why did residents begin leaving Ayn Ghazal in April 1948?
A June 30, 1948 Haganah research report recorded Ayn Ghazal as partially evacuated on April 25, attributing the departure to what it called the "Haifa action effect." The report noted that evacuees went "To the Triangle" and did not record a full evacuation of the village at that time.
What was the population of Ayn Ghazal?
The 1945 Palestine Village Statistics estimated Ayn Ghazal's population at 2,170 Arabs at the end of 1944, with no Jewish residents recorded. A separate Haganah research report dated June 30, 1948 listed the village's population during normal times as 2,410, though that report cautioned its estimates carry a 10–15% margin of error, with a potentially greater margin for populations outside the State of Israel.