al-Ruways

The village of al-Ruways occupied the site known to the Crusaders as Carblier. It was situated on a small rocky hill overlooking the Plain of Acre. A secondary road connected it to the nearby villages of al-Damun and al-Birwa to the north, and from there to the Acre–Safad main road. This same road also linked the village to the Haifa–Acre coastal highway.

By the late 19th century, al-Ruways was located in an open area bordered by olive groves to the north. Its population—around 100 Muslims—made it one of the smallest villages in the region. The homes were originally built from stone, and later—starting in the 1930s—with reinforced concrete. The village consisted of two quarters separated by a road.

Al-Ruways had its own mosque, and the village children attended school in al-Damun. Residents obtained their drinking water from household cisterns that collected rainwater during the winter months. The villagers were primarily engaged in agriculture.

In the 1944–1945 statistics:

844 dunums were dedicated to cereal crops

222 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, including 40 dunums planted with olive trees

To the southwest of the village, there was a ruined site (khirbet) containing crumbling stone walls, wells, and rock-hewn tombs. Remnants of Roman milestones—which once marked ancient roadways—were discovered approximately one kilometer southeast of the village.

Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing

Following the occupation of Nazareth on July 16, 1948, units of the Israeli Army’s Seventh Brigade (Sheva Brigade) advanced into the Western Galilee to seize additional villages in the Acre region, including al-Ruways.

Emboldened by military victories in al-Ruways and other nearby villages, Israeli forces pushed further into the central Galilee toward Sakhnin. Most of the civilian population fled under the pressure of artillery bombardment or after the fall of neighboring towns, such as Nazareth and Shefa ‘Amr.

The Village Today

The site of al-Ruways is now abandoned. The remnants include rubble from old wells, concrete roof slabs, and clusters of eucalyptus trees and cactus plants.

The surrounding lands are cultivated by the residents of the nearby Israeli settlement of Yas’ur.

Zionist Settlements on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements built directly on the lands of al-Ruways. However, the settlement of Yas’ur (grid ref. 166256), established in 1949, is located north of the village of al-Damun and currently cultivates the lands that once belonged to al-Ruways.