Bayt Daras () was a Palestinian Arab town located northeast of Gaza and approximately above sea level, which was depopulated in 1948. History A grave, dating to the Hellenistic era, probably from the first half of the third century BCE, have been found and excavated at the site. Bayt Daras was an archaeological site that contained stone foundations and vaulted rooms. The Crusaders built a castle on the hill that overlooked the village. During the Mamluk rule in Palestine, (1205-1517), Bayt Daras formed part of a mail route from Cairo to Damascus. In this period, in 1325, a khan, or caravanserai, was built in the village. Ottoman Empire In 1517, Bayt Daras was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596 the village appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as being in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the Liwa of Gaza, with a population of 58 Muslim households; an estimated 319 persons. It paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on goats, beehives and vineyards; a total of 7,900 akçe. 1/24 of the revenue went to a waqf. In 1838, Beit Daras was noted as a Muslim village in the Gaza district. French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in 1863, and found it to have 700 inhabitants. In the 1882 PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP), the village of Bayt Daras was described as being surrounded by gardens and olive groves, and it was bordered to the north by a pond. British Mandate In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Daras had a population of 1,670 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census of Palestine, to 1,804, still all Muslim, in 401 inhabited houses. In the 1945 statistics Beit Daras had a population of 2,750 Muslims, with 16,357 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 832 dunams were allocated to citrus and banana plants, 472 plantations and irrigable land, 14,436 used for cereals, while 88 dunams were built-up land. State of Israel In response to hundreds of fighters from Bayt Daras attacking Kibbutz Nitzanim, the village was subject to an Israeli counteroffensive military assault four times. It was defended by the Sudanese Army and a number of local militiamen and, according to Ramzy Baroud, subjected to heavy shelling on March