‘Ibdis

The village was located on a flat patch of land in the coastal plain bordered by the Abdus Valley to the east. Two side roads connected it to the main road between Majdal and the Jaffa-Jerusalem main road. It is located 30 kilometers from Gaza at an average elevation of 75 meters above sea level. Its population, which in 1945 numbered 540 people, was Muslim. The village was famous in the region for the quality of its grains, such as wheat and barley.

Displacement
On the night of February 17, 1948, Zionist forces arrived at the village in three large vehicles and clashed with the village’s fighters for an hour and a half until the attackers withdrew to the Negba settlement. On July 8, 1948, while the first truce in the war was about to end, the Givati ​​Brigade moved to the southern front to contact the Israeli forces in the Negev, where clashes took place in the village that ended with the Israeli forces occupying it and displacing its population in the early morning hours. The Egyptian forces tried to retake the village on July 10, but they failed and suffered heavy losses.

Colonization
The settlement of Merkaza Shapira, which was established in 1948 on the border between the lands of ‘Ibdis and the lands of Western Sawafir, cultivates some land near the site, but it is not part of the village’s lands.

The village today
The location of the village can only be distinguished by some sycamore trees. Its houses were destroyed, and parts of the surrounding land are cultivated.

Reference: Walid Khalidi, Lest We Forget, pp. 553-555.