| Najd | ||
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Najd
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| Arabic | نجد | |
| District | Gaza | |
| Coordinates | ||
| Population | 620[1] (1945) | |
| Area | 13,576 dunums
13.6 km² |
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| Date of depopulation | 12 May 1948[2] | |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Yishuv forces | |
| Current localities | Sderot[3], Or HaNer[4] | |
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[5] and fled to Gaza. In 1951, the town of Sderot was built on the village's lands.
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Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, in 1596, Najd 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.[6]
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.[7]
In the late 19th century, Claude Conder writes that Najd was a small village with a well and a pond.[8]
As the population grew during the Mandate period, the village expanded northwestward. The village population was Muslim, and the children attended school in Simsim, 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) to the northeast. The villagers worked primarily in agriculture and animal husbandry. Fields of grain and fruit trees surrounded Najd on all sides. The fruit trees were concentrated to the north and northeastern sides, where irrigation water was available from wells.[9]
At the time of the 1931 census, Najd had 82 occupied houses and a population of 422 Muslims.[10]
Cultivated lands in the village in 1944-45 included a total of 10 dunums allocated for citrus and bananas and 11,916 dunums for cereals. An additional 511 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The population at this time was 620.[9][11]
According to Benny Morris, the villagers of Najd were "driven out" by soldiers from the Negev Brigade on 12–13 May, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[5]
The Israeli city of Sderot was founded in 1951 on village land, to the south of the village,[9] while Or HaNer was founded in 1957 also on village land, to the northeast.[9]
