Description : Beit Lahia or Beit Lahiya (Arabic: بيت لاهيا) is a city in the Gaza Strip north of Jabalia, near Beit Hanoun and the 1949 Armistice Line with Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 59,540 in mid-year 2006. Hamas political party is still administering the city, together with the entire Gaza Strip, after winning the 2005 municipal elections. Beit Lahia has an ancient hill and nearby lay abandoned village ruins. It has been suggested that it was Bethelia, home town of Sozomen, where there was a temple. Ceramics from the Byzantine period have been found. A mihrab, or mosque alcove indicating the direction of salaah (prayer), is all that remains of an ancient mosque to the west of Beit Lahia dating to the end of the Fatamid period and beginning of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin, and two other mosques dating to the Ottoman period. Yaqut al-Hamawi († 1229) described "Bait Lihya" as being located "near Ghazzah", and he further noted that "it is a village with many fruit-trees".
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