Sumsum consisted of 1,290 Muslims and 70 Jews, while the total land area was 16,797 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 240 dunams were used citrus and bananas, 252 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 15,582 for cereals, while 44 dunams were built-up areas. 1948 war and after During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the villagers of Simsim, together with the surrounding villages, were driven out by soldiers from the Negev Brigade on 12–13 May 1948 as part of Operation Barak. In Simsim the occupying troops found only a handful of old people. They blew up five houses and warned that if the village's weapons were not handed over the following day, they would blow up the rest. But the inhabitants repeatedly returned to the village, either to resettle or to cultivate crops. At the end of May, a Negev Brigade unit, with orders to expel "the Arabs from Sumsum and Burayr and burn their granaries and fields", swept through the villages, encountering resistance in Sumsum, and killed "5" (or, according to another report, "20") and blew up granaries and a well. The Israeli troops returned to Simsim yet again, on 9 or 10 June 1948, again burning houses and skirmishing with Arabs. Or HaNer, established in 1957, lie less than one km south of the village site, on land formerly belonging to Najd, Gaza. In 1992, the village site was described: "The village has been obliterated and can only be recognised from the cypress and sycamore trees that still remain. A pile of stones that may be the debris of a village building is visible. The site is fenced in and serves as a pasture. The land in the vicinity are cultivated by Israeli farmers." People from Simsim Jamil Majdalawi References Bibliography Baedeker, K., A. Socin and Immanuel Benzinger (1894). Palestine and Syria: Handbook for Travellers. Harvard University. Porter, J.L., (1858). A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine. Harvard University. External links Welcome To Simsim Simsim, Zochrot Survey of Western Palestine, Map 20: IAA, Wikimedia commons Simsim from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Tour to Simsim Yoav Bachar, 28.3.09, Zochrot District of Gaza Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War