al-Zababida, Khirbat

The village stood on a gently elevated hill approximately one kilometer from the seashore. It overlooked the basin of Wadi al-Faliq to the north and east, and an artificial canal running from north to south, which was constructed to drain nearby swamps. Sand dunes bordered the village to the west, lying between it and the sea. A secondary road connected Khirbat al-Zababida to the town of Qalqilya in the southeast.

In the Palestine Index Gazetteer, the village was classified as a farm. It was inhabited by members of the al-Nusairat tribe, who had settled in the area at an undetermined time. By the late 19th century, Khirbat al-Zababida was categorized as a medium-sized village located at the southern edge of an agricultural plain.

In 1944–1945, a total of 344 dunums of village land were planted with citrus and bananas, 3,839 dunums with cereals, and 215 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.

Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing

The village was situated in an area that became a focal point of Zionist military operations during the initial weeks of the 1948 war. The coastal strip north of Tel Aviv, densely populated with Jewish settlements, was deemed of critical importance, and its “cleansing” of Arab residents was considered essential before 15 May 1948.

It is most likely that Khirbat al-Zababida met the same fate as the nearby village of Tabsur, whose remaining residents were expelled by the Haganah on 3 April 1948.

The Village Today

The site is now deserted, overgrown with wild vegetation and trees. Only four of the original houses remain intact—three constructed of cement-bonded bricks and one built from hard basalt stone. Iron supports protrude from the remaining stonework of five other destroyed houses. A park affiliated with Kibbutz Yakum has been established on the edge of a natural pond.

Israeli Settlements on Village Lands

The settlement of Yakum (grid reference 135184), established in 1947, and the settlement of Ga'ash (133183), established in 1951, are both located on the village lands.