Juhor ad-Dik | |
---|---|
Arabic transcription(s) | |
• Arabic | جحر الديك |
• Latin | Juhar ad-Deek (official) |
Location of Juhor ad-Dik within Palestine | |
Coordinates: 31°27′25″N 34°26′24″E / 31.45694°N 34.44000°E | |
State | State of Palestine |
Governorate | Gaza |
Government | |
• Type | Village council |
Population (2017)[1] | |
• Total | 4,586 |
Juhor ad-Dik (Arabic: جحر الديك, lit. 'burrow of the cock') is a Palestinian farming village in the Gaza Governorate, south of Gaza City, in the central Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 4,586 inhabitants in 2017.[1]
During Israel's 2009 invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops and Palestinian militiamen battled frequently in Juhor ad-Dik, with over 100 of the village's houses having been bulldozed by Israeli forces by the end of the conflict.[2][3]
The village suffered greatly during the 2014 Gaza war, with many of its buildings reduced to ruins.[4] In January 2015, according to The New Arab, there was "not a house left standing" in the village in the aftermath of the war.[5] Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence published an anonymous interview with a first sergeant in the IDF's Armored Corps, who recounted his unit's wholesale destruction of houses and trees in the village using IDF Caterpillar D9 bulldozers.[6]
The northern Gaza Strip's largest landfill is located in the Juhor ad-Dik area, about 500 meters from the Gaza border fence.[7][8][9] In September 2023, a severe heat wave caused the outbreak of a fire at the landfill site that lasted several days.[8] Amid the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, waste began accumulating throughout the streets of Gaza City, as municipal garbagemen were unable to transport it to the Juhor ad-Dik landfill site due to heavy Israeli bombardment.[9]
On 28 October 2023, an IDF raid maneuvered into the Gaza Strip east of al-Bureij refugee camp, in the Juhor ad-Dik area.[10] During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli infantry and armour near Juhor ad-Dik were frequently the targets of ambushes, mortar attacks, and anti-tank fire by Hamas's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.[11]
In the 1997 census by the PCBS, Palestinian refugees made up 72.3% of the population which at the time was 2,275.[12]