al-Ghabssiyeh

The village of Al-Ghabisiyya was built on a rocky hill that rose from the Acre Plain. It was located at the base of the western Galilee hills, just south of the main road connecting Tarshiha to the Zionist settlement of Nahariya and to Acre. The large number of caves in the area, which were used as burial sites, suggests that the region was likely inhabited during the Canaanite era.

By the late 19th century, Al-Ghabisiyya was a stone-built village situated atop a hill, with an estimated population of around 150 people. The area was surrounded by olive, fig, pomegranate trees, and other orchards.

The three villages—Al-Ghabisiyya, Shaykh Dawud, and Shaykh Danun—were located in close proximity to one another. In fact, Shaykh Dawud and Shaykh Danun overlapped in some areas, while Al-Ghabisiyya was located approximately 500 meters away from them. All inhabitants were Muslims. Al-Ghabisiyya had a school built by the Ottoman authorities in 1886. The village houses were constructed of reinforced concrete or, in some cases, of stone bound with mud or cement. The village economy relied on agriculture and animal husbandry, with grain and vegetables being the primary crops. The villagers also cultivated olives, which they pressed in two animal-powered olive presses—one in Al-Ghabisiyya and the other in Shaykh Dawud.

In 1944–1945, a total of 6,633 dunums from the lands of the three villages were allocated for cereal cultivation, and 1,171 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. At that time, 100 dunums in Al-Ghabisiyya were specifically allocated for olive trees.

Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing of the Village

Al-Ghabisiyya fell during the conclusion of Operation Ben-Ami, which was the Haganah’s military offensive in the northwestern part of Palestine. This operation began on 13–14 May 1948 and was the last major assault by the Haganah before the end of the British Mandate. The objective was to occupy all coastal villages from Acre northward to the Lebanese border.

According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, Operation Ben-Ami was aligned with Plan Dalet, which involved the capture of areas for Zionist settlement—even those beyond the boundaries of the 1947 UN partition plan. Orders were issued to the Carmeli Brigade, which carried out the operation, on 19 May 1948. These orders included: “attack with the goal of occupation, kill the men, and destroy and burn the villages of Kabri, Umm al-Faraj, and al-Nahr.” Morris adds that Kabri was captured the following night, on 20–21 May, during the second phase of Operation Ben-Ami. The village of al-Nahr and a series of other villages in the western Galilee north of Acre were also captured during this phase.

Units of the Carmeli Brigade attacked Al-Ghabisiyya, the last village to be captured during Operation Ben-Ami, on 20–21 May 1948. According to Morris, the village formally surrendered and some of its residents were expelled in the days and weeks that followed.

According to testimonies collected by Palestinian researcher Nafez Nazzal from villagers, the attack came from two directions: the north and southeast. Israeli forces occupied a house at the southern edge of the village and began shelling from inside it, killing and injuring many residents as they fled. Others had already been displaced due to the fall of Acre. The local defenders—numbering around twenty—chose to avoid confrontation, stating later that they were “very few in number and poorly armed.”

Most of the displaced villagers remained in other Galilee villages until the entire region fell in late October 1948, after which they were expelled to Lebanon. However, according to Israeli sources cited by Morris, some villagers remained in Al-Ghabisiyya until February 1949, when a second wave of expulsions was carried out—this time by the Israeli military government—under the pretext of “security, law, and order.” The final destination of those expelled remains unknown.

After the expulsion of residents from Al-Ghabisiyya and the neighboring villages of Shaykh Dawud and Shaykh Danun, the Israeli government permitted the return of residents from the latter two villages—those who had not fled to Lebanon. They were joined by a few families from Al-Ghabisiyya, al-Birwa, Umm al-Faraj, Amqa, and Kuwaykat. Shaykh Dawud and Shaykh Danun were eventually merged into one village with a population of approximately 1,000. Al-Ghabisiyya, however, was never rebuilt.

The Village Today

Only the mosque remains, a stone building with a dome, arched doors and windows, and decorative arches inside. The mosque is abandoned, and its concrete dome covering is crumbling. Wild vegetation covers the structure. Remnants of destroyed homes, agricultural terraces, and the village cemetery can still be seen amidst a dense cypress forest planted over the village site and on part of its lands. Cacti also grow on the site. The nearby lands not covered by forest are cultivated by the Israeli settlement of Beit HaEmek.

Israeli Settlements on Village Lands

In 1950, Zionist immigrants from Iraq established the settlement of Tziv’on HaShiv’a (site code 163266) on village lands, approximately 1.25 kilometers west of the original village site.