al-Qabu

Al-Qabu is an ancient Palestinian Arab village located in the southwest of the Jerusalem district. The village was situated atop a broad summit of one of the western hills of Jerusalem, approximately 12 kilometers in a straight line and about 17 kilometers by road from the city of Jerusalem, via the route connecting Bayt Jibrin through Al-Qabu to Husan, then Bethlehem, and finally to Jerusalem.

The village contains several ruined structures and archaeological sites, including remnants indicating the presence of ancient civilizations. One notable site includes the remains of a vaulted church. In Khirbat Abu ‘Adas, pottery shards and vaulted cisterns have been discovered, while Khirbat Tazza contains ruins and a vaulted structure near the spring of Al-Qabu. Due to the abundance of vaults (underground structures), the village was known during the Roman era as Qobani. During that period, it was one of several notable towns and villages in the Jerusalem area, alongside Bethlehem, Al-Tur, Jamala, Al-Qastal, and Al-Khader.

According to the Zionist publication The History of the War of Independence, the Sixth Battalion of the "Harel" Brigade of the occupying forces entered the village on October 21, 1948, during "Operation Ha-Har" (The Mountain). Zionist historian Benny Morris states that the village was occupied on October 23, 1948. This military action, launched toward the end of the second truce of the war, aimed to seize control of a group of villages located in the southern sector of the corridor leading to Jerusalem.

Morris notes that the occupying forces were determined not to allow any civilian presence to remain in the area. As a result, the residents of Al-Qabu were either forced to flee or were expelled toward Bethlehem and the Hebron hills. It appears that Al-Qabu changed hands between Zionist and Jordanian control before being among four villages in the Jerusalem area that were formally ceded to the occupying authority under the 1949 Armistice Agreement with Jordan. This transfer was made to ensure that the Jerusalem–Jaffa railway remained entirely within the borders of the occupying state.

The History of the War of Independence also states that the occupying army entered Al-Qabu "without resistance" in the weeks following April 3, 1949, the date on which the Armistice Agreement was signed in Rhodes.