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Hableh (, also transliterated Hable, Habla, Hablah, Hibla, Hiblah) is a Palestinian village located in the Qalqilya Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northwestern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, the town had a population of 7,057 in 2017.
In 1265, Hableh was among the villages and estates sultan Baibars allocated to his after he had expelled the Crusader States. Hableh was divided equally between three of his amirs: Izz al-Din Aydamur al-Zahiri, the na'ib of Al-Karak, Jamal al-Din Aqush, and Shams al-Din Sunqur Jah al-Zahiri.Ibn al-Furat, 1971, pp. 82, 209, 249 (map)
Pierre Jacotin listed the village on his map in 1799.Karmon, 1960, p. 170 In 1838 Hableh was noted as a Muslim village, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 126
Edward Robinson and Eli Smith visited Hableh in the mid-19th century and describe it as being situated along the southern side of a low rocky ridge overlooking a plain on which could be seen the villages of Qalqilya, Kafr Saba, Jaljulia, and Antipatris.Robinson and Smith, 1857, p. 136. Camping on the ground to the south of the village and north of a maqam on a low rocky hill, Robinson and Smith found themselves surrounded by dug into the rock.Robinson, 1858, p. 528. Most of these had round openings, some with one or two steps by which one could descend into them to draw water. All appeared to be ancient, and only one was still in use. There was also a sepulcher with an arched vault and an ancient wine press made up of two vats, one shallower and smaller than the other in which grapes would have been trodden with the juice going down through a hole to the larger, deeper vat directly adjacent and slightly below.
Victor Guérin, who visited Hableh in 1870, said it contained 800 inhabitants. A few of the houses and the village mosque were built using large stones of apparent antiquity. He too noted the presence of ancient rock-cut formations around the village.Guérin, 1875, pp. 367-368
In 1870/1871 (1288 Anno Hegirae), an Ottoman census listed the village in the Nahiyah (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Awwal, subordinate to Nablus.
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Hableh as a "village of moderate size, evidently an ancient site, surrounded with cisterns and tombs. The houses are principally of stone. The water supply from cisterns."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 284
By the end of the mandate period, in the 1945 statistics, the population had increased to 580 Muslims.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 20 The village lands covered an area of 10,903 dunams: 8,391 of which were owned by , 570 by , and 1,942 of which were public lands.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 75 A total of 28 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 169 dunams for plantations and irrigable land, 6,847 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 125 while 15 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 175
In 1961, the population was 996.Government of Jordan, 1964, p. 27
Inhabitants of Habla were among the 10,000 Palestinians displaced as a result of the 1967 war.Masalha, 2005, p. 11, 19 (footnote #32). According to Nur Masalha, Israeli forces evicted civilians and deliberately destroyed Habla among a number of other villages during the war (such as Imwas, Yalo, Bayt Nuba, Bayt Marsam, Bayt 'Awa, al-Burj, and Jiftlik).Masalha, 2003, p. 205.
After the 1995 accords, about 21.1% of the village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 78.9% as Area C. Habla Town Profile (including Ad Dab’a Locality), ARIJ, p. 17
The construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier to the north of the village in the first decade of the 21st century changed the life of Habla's inhabitants. Palestinian labourers line up every day before 5am at gate no. 1393 in the barbed wire fence surrounding Habla. Manned by soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). They wait approximately two hours so as to enter the seam zone, a closed military zone, where they seek to tend to land that they own there or in nearby Qalqilya or to work in these areas as manual labourers.
All those entering the seam zone must have a valid "pass-permit" that allows them to leave and enter for work which is issued by the Israeli military authorities. Those with the proper pass permits who wish to access Qalqilya can drive around the barrier, through multiple IDF checkpoint. Alternatively, they may use a tunnel that was built in 2004 to connect Habla to Qalqilya.
British Mandate era
In the wake of World War I, British military governors were established in Palestine's major cities and the deputy for the governor in Nablus was stationed in Habla.The Encyclopædia Britannica, 1922, p. 19. During the British Mandatory period, Hableh formed part of the Tulkarm Subdistrict. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Hableh had a population of 271, all ,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 27 increasing in the 1931 census to 397, still all Muslims, in a total of 86 houses.Mills ed., 1932, p. 55
Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Hableh came under Jordanian rule.
Post-1967
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Hableh came under Israeli occupation.
Separation barrier
According to a report in The Jerusalem Times on January 24, 1996, Israeli bulldozers began levelling land in Hiblah belonging to its Palestinian residents in order to build an electronic wall that would separate the towns of Tulkarm and Kalkiliya from the Green Line. In February of the same year, it was reported that the security fence being built on Hibla's land would be long and would separate the village from the Israeli village of Matti.
Bibliography
(1977). 9783920405414, Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. . ISBN 9783920405414
N. Masalha (2026). 9780745321219, Pluto Press (Original from the University of Michigan). . ISBN 9780745321219
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