Info
District: Hebron
Population 1948: 220
Occupation date: 23/10/1948
Occupying unit: Giva'ati
Jewish settlements on village/town land before 1948: Gal On
Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: None
Background:
Ra'na Before 1948
At a distance of 26 km from Hebron, the village of Ra'na was located on the eastern slopes of the western foothills of the Hebron Mountains. A secondary road linked it to the south to Kudna and Bayt Jibrin, and to the northwest to the villages of al-Dubban and 'Ajjur, connecting it further with the Jerusalem-Jaffa highway. In the late nineteenth century, the village had houses made of stone and roofed with wood and mud, gardens, and a pool. Palestine Index Gazetteer classified it as a hamlet. Its inhabitants were Muslim, and, in addition to grain as the main crop, they were also cultivating grapes, carob, and olive trees in the final years of the British Mandate.
Occupation, Depopulation, and Israeli Settlements
While Operation Yo'av was enacted further to the south, the Israeli army's Giv'ati Brigade conquered several villages in the Hebron District. Ra'na was occupied on 22-23 October 1948. After many of its residents fled before the arrival of the troops, the remaining ones were expelled towards Hebron.
In 1946, the settlement of Gal-On was established on village lands.
The Village Today
No houses or rubble remain from what used to be the village of Ra'na. Overgrown in part by cactuses and carob trees, the site has been fenced in with barbed wire.
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Source: al-Khalidi, Walid (ed.). All that remains: the Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: 1992.