An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 73 houses and a population of 196, though the population count included men, only. In the 19th century, a ruined tower stood atop a mound just outside the village which was built in an open plain. British Mandate era During the British Mandate of Palestine period in the 20th century, the village houses were built of adobe brick and it relied on the nearby town of al-Faluja for medical, commercial, and administrative services. Karatiyya itself, had a mosque, a grain mill, and an elementary school—the latter was built in 1922 and had an enrollment of 128 students in the mid-1940s. Domestic water was supplied by two wells dug within the village and the primary agricultural crops were grain and prickly pears. In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Karatiya had a population of 736 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 932, still all Muslims, in 229 houses. In the 1945 statistics Karatiyya had a population of 1,370 Muslims, with a total of 13,709 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 321 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 12,928 for cereals, while 48 dunams were built-up land. 1948 War, and aftermath As a part of a new policy the Haganah blew up a house in Karatiyya on the night of December 9, 1947, the orders to the Givati Brigade who executed the order had been for "two houses". Karatiyya was captured by the Israeli Army's 89th Mechanized Battalion, commander Moshe Dayan, on July 18, 1948, as part of Operation Death to the Invader. Its inhabitants fled upon their arrival, according to Dayan. According to Benny Morris, the village "was harassed by machine-gun fire and abandoned by its inhabitants". Israeli forces intended to link their northern territory with that held by Israeli forces in the Negev, but succeeded only partially, only taking control of Hatta and Karatiyya. After it was stormed by Dayan's troops he controversially withdrew them leaving a Givati infantry company to hold the position. A fierce battle ensued between them and the Egyptian Army who got as far as the village outskirts. When two Egyptian tanks were on the verge of breaking the Israeli defenses from the south, a unit hiding behind a wall of prickly pear cacti, armed with anti-tank weapons "changed the course of the