Khursa

Municipality type D in Hebron, State of Palestine

31°28′58″N 35°1′2″E / 31.48278°N 35.01722°E / 31.48278; 35.01722Palestine grid150/094StateState of PalestineGovernorateHebronGovernment

• TypeVillage councilPopulation

(2017)^[1]

• Total3,481

Khursa (Arabic: كرزه) is a Palestinian village located seven kilometers south-west of Hebron. The village is in the Hebron Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 3,481 in 2017.^[1] The primary health care facilities for the village are designated by the Ministry of Health as level 2.^[2]

Etymology

According to Palmer, the name Khirbet Kurza means "the ruin of kurza", a pine cone.^[3]

History

According to an oral tradition from Dura, Khursa was destroyed in an attack by the people of Dura. This event probably happened during the seventeenth century AD. According to this story, those who lived in Khursa then moved to Bayt Jibrin.^[4]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found here "walls, caves, a well, and a vault, probably a cistern. There were several cisterns and a sacred place to the west. Some of the ruins appear to be modern, some ancient."^[5]

Footnotes

^ ^a ^b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
^ West Bank Health care Archived 2006-03-13 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
^ Palmer, 1881, p 400
^ Grossman, D. "The expansion of the settlement frontier of Hebron's western and southern fringes". Geography Research Forum, 5, 1982, p. 64.
^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 359

Bibliography

Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

External links

Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21: IAA, Wikimedia commons
Kurza Village (fact sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, ARIJ
Kurza Village profile, ARIJ
Kurza Village aerial photo, ARIJ
The priorities and needs for development in Kurza village based on the community and local authorities’ assessment, ARIJ

Hebron Governorate

Cities