Qabatiya (, also spelled Qabatia, Qabatya, and Kabatiya) is a Palestinian city located in the Jenin Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, located 6 km south of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) census, the town had a population of 19,197 in 2007. Its entire land area is 50,547 dunams (50.5 km2; 19.5 sq mi), and its elevation is roughly 256 meters (840 feet). Qabatiya is famous for its olive groves, modern agriculture, and limestone industry. History Sherds have been found here from Persian, Hellenistic, early and late Roman, Byzantine, early Muslim and Medieval eras. A Muslim traveller in the 12th century CE indicated it as "a village in the district of Jenin". Ottoman era Qabatiya, like all of Palestine was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. In the 1596 tax registers, it was part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami, part of the larger Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 89 households and 18 bachelors, all Muslims. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 14,920 akçe. Half of the revenues went to the Tarabay Bey of Lajjun. In 1105 AH (1693 CE) Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi mentioned a village on the road from Nablus to Jenin. in 1838 Edward Robinson found it to be a very large village, surrounded by very extensive and beautiful olive groves, while in 1850, it was described as surrounded by gardens, built on the side of a wooden hill, covered with olive trees. In 1870 Victor Guérin found gardens around Koubatieh planted with fig, olive and pomegranate trees, with vegetables underneath. It was a large village, divided into several areas under the jurisdiction of many different sheikhs. He further noted that “Kubataieh stands upon a rocky hill, whose sides are pierced by numerous cisterns of ancient origin, some of which are partly filled up and in bad repair ; others are still used by the people. The latter are closed at the mouth by great round stones in form of a mill-stone, pierced in the centre. This second opening is itself closed by another stone, which is taken away when the water is drawn. This system of closed wells and cisterns by means of a stone is of extreme