Deir al-Balah Governorate

Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah (Arabic: دير البلح, lit. 'Monastery of the Date Palm') is a Palestinian city in the central Gaza Strip and the administrative capital of the Deir el-Balah Governorate of the State of Palestine. It is located over 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) south of Gaza City. The city had a population of 75,132 in 2017. The city is known for its date palms, after which it is named. Deir al-Balah dates back to the Late Bronze Age when it served as a fortified outpost for the New Kingdom of Egypt. A monastery was built there by the Christian monk Hilarion in the mid-4th century AD and is currently believed to be the site of a mosque dedicated to Saint George, known locally as al-Khidr. During the Crusader-Ayyubid wars, Deir al-Balah was the site of a strategic coastal fortress known as "Darum" which was continuously contested, dismantled and rebuilt by both sides until its final demolition in 1196. Afterward, the site grew to become a large village on the postal route of the Mamluk Sultanate (13th-15th centuries). It served as an episcopal see of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem in Ottoman times until the late 19th century. Under Egyptian control Deir al-Balah, whose population tripled through the influx of refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, was a prosperous agricultural town until its capture by Israel in the Six-Day War. After 27 years of Israeli occupation, Deir al-Balah became the first city to come under Palestinian self-rule in 1994. Since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, it has witnessed frequent incursions by the Israeli Army with the stated aim of stopping Qassam rocket fire into Israel. Ahmad Kurd, a Hamas member, was elected mayor in late January 2005.

The Palestine Technical College (Arabic: كلية فلسطين التقنية, romanized: Kullīyat Filasṭīn al-Tiqniyah) is a college in Deir El-Balah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. The college offers bachelor degree programs and 2-year associate degrees in technical education at the post-secondary level, as well as programmers for different target groups through continuing education. It is a governmental college that was established in 1993. Currently there are more than 1800 student enrolled in the college in 20 diploma programs and 8 B.Sc. programs. The main college campus is located at the city of Deir El-Balah. The college has a branch campus in the north of Gaza City. In the academic year 2015/2016, PTC employed around 200 full time employees of which 120 were academic staff. In 2023 it was used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians during the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip and its buildings were damaged by Israeli military strikes.

Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital (English: al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital) is the only hospital located in the middle area of the Gaza Strip in Deir al-Balah and was founded in 2001. As of 2018, this hospital is one of fifteen public hospitals in the Gaza Strip and is managed by UNRWA, The Ministry of Health, and various NGOs. The hospital serves an estimated 18,000 patients each month. According to The Ministry of Health, the hospital's emergency department had over 11,000 visits. In 2018, the hospital had 166 beds.

Deir al-Balah Camp (Arabic: مخيّم دير البلح) is a Palestinian refugee camp in the Deir al-Balah Governorate of the southern Gaza Strip, located one kilometer northwest of the center of Deir al-Balah city, of which it practically forms part. The camp consists of concrete buildings and has eight schools, sewers, and other municipal services. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the camp had a population of 6,985 in 2017. It is the smallest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Deir al-Balah Camp is built on an area of 0.16 square kilometers (16 hectares; 39 acres (160,000 m2); ). As of March 2005, the population registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was 19,534 persons.

RAF Gaza was an Royal Air Force airfield on the southwest coast of Mandatory Palestine, in the present day Gaza Strip.

The Kfar Darom bus attack was a 1995 suicide attack on an Israeli bus carrying civilians and soldiers to Kfar Darom, an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. The attack killed seven Israeli soldiers and one American civilian. The Shaqaqi faction of the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing. A United States Federal district judge ruled that the Iranian Government had provided financial aid to the group that carried out the attack and were therefore responsible for the murder of the U.S. citizen. The court ordered the Government of Iran to pay the victim's family $247.5 million in damages.

Kfar Darom (Hebrew: כְּפַר דָּרוֹם, lit. South Village), was a kibbutz and an Israeli settlement within the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip.

Az-Zawayda (Arabic: الزوايدة), also spelled Zawaida, is a Palestinian town in the Gaza Strip, in the Deir al-Balah Governorate of the State of Palestine. It is located about three kilometers northeast of the city of Deir al-Balah and just west of Maghazi refugee camp. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) 2017 census, there were 23,841 residents.

Al-Musaddar (Arabic: المُصَدّر) is a Palestinian village in the central Gaza Strip, part of the Deir al-Balah Governorate east of Deir al-Balah, south of the Maghazi refugee camp and west of the border with Israel. In the 1997 census its population was 1,277. Al-Musaddar had a population of 2,587 in 2017 according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

Tell Umm el-'Amr, also known as Tell Umm Amer, is an archaeological site located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Deir al-Balah Governorate, Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Saint Hilarion Monastery, at the archaeological site of Tell Umm el-'Amr, is an ancient Christian monastery close to Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Wadi as-Salqa (Arabic: وادي السلقا) is a Palestinian agricultural town in the Deir al-Balah Governorate, located south of Deir al-Balah. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the municipality had a population of 6,715 in 2017.Over half of the inhabitants are below the age of 18. Since the economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip following Hamas' victory in the Palestinian National Authority's legislative elections in 2006, about 85% of Wadi as-Salqa's population lived under the poverty line.