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Hebron Governorate | |
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2018 United Nations map of the area, showing the Israeli occupation arrangements in the governorate | |
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| Country | |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,060 km2 (410 sq mi) |
| Population (2017 Census)[1] | |
• Total | 711,223 |
| This figure excludes the Israeli West Bank settlements | |
| ISO 3166 code | PS-HBN |
| Governorates of the West Bank (Palestine) |
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The Hebron Governorate (Arabic: محافظة الخليل, romanized: Muḥāfaẓat al-Khalīl) is an administrative district of Palestine in the southern West Bank.
The governorate's land area is 1,060 square kilometres (410 sq mi) and its population according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in mid-year 2019 was 1,004,510. This makes the Hebron Governorate the largest of 16 governorates in both population and land area in the Palestinian territories.[2] The city of Hebron is the district capital or muhfaza (seat) of the governorate. The governor is Hussein al-Araj and its district commander[ambiguous] is Abdel Fattah al-Ju’eidi.[3]
During the first six months of the First Intifada 42 people in Hebron Governorate were killed by the Israeli army.[4]
The Wall Street Journal reported in July 2025 that a group of sheikhs of the Jaabari clan in Hebron, led by Wadee’ al-Jaabari, had penned a joint letter to Israeli economy minister Nir Barkat proposing to leave the Palestinian Authority to join the Abraham Accords and set up an "Emirate of Hebron". This plan had previously been proposed by Israeli scholar Mordechai Kedar, which would have Palestinian clans rule their local territories, rather than the PA or Hamas, modeled on the United Arab Emirates system. Jaabari met with a WSJ writer and later a Jerusalem Post writer, and said the sheikhs reject the Oslo Accords, do not trust the Palestinian Authority, and want a new solution. The plan will create a special economic zone and allow thousands of Hebron residents to work in Israel, which stopped after the October 7 attacks.[5][6]
The Hebron Governorate has a total of seven cities and eighteen towns. The governorate also contains more than 100 Bedouin villages and settlements that are not listed below.[2]
The following localities have municipality status from the Ministry of Local Government of the Palestinian National Authority.
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The following have populations over 1,000 persons.
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| Year | Muslims | Christians | Jews | Total | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1538 | 749 h | 7 h | 20 h | 776 h | (h = households), Cohen & Lewis[7] |
| 1774 | 300 | Azulai[8] | |||
| 1817 | 500 | Israel Foreign Ministry[9] | |||
| 1820 | 1,000 | William Turner[10] | |||
| 1824 | 60 h | (40 h Sephardim, 20 h Ashkenazim), The Missionary Herald[11] | |||
| 1832 | 400 h | 100 h | 500 h | (h = households), Augustin Calmet, Charles Taylor, Edward Robinson[12] | |
| 1837 | 423 | Montefiore census | |||
| 1838 | c. 6000–7,000 | "few" | 700 | 7–8,000 | William McClure Thomson[13] |
| 1839 | 1295 f | 1 f | 241 | (f = families), David Roberts[14][15] | |
| 1840 | 700–800 | James A. Huie[16] | |||
| 1851 | 11,000 | 450 | Official register[17] | ||
| 1851 | 400 | Clorinda Minor[18] | |||
| 1866 | 497 | Montefiore census | |||
| 1871–2 | 2,800 h | 200 h | 3,000 h | Ottoman records for the Syrian provincial sālnāme for these years[19] | |
| 1875 | 8,000–10,000 | 500 | Albert Socin[17] | ||
| 1875 | 17,000 | 600 | Hebron Kaymakam[17] | ||
| 1881 | 1,000–1,200 | PEF Survey of Palestine[17] | |||
| 1881 | 800 | 5,000 | The Friend[20] | ||
| 1890 | 1,490 | Jewish Encyclopedia | |||
| 1895 | 1,400 | [21] | |||
| 1906 | 1,100 | 14,000 | (690 Sephardim, 410 Ashkenazim), Jewish Encyclopedia | ||
| 1922 | 16,074 | 73 | 430 | 16,577 | 1922 census of Palestine[22] |
| 1929 | 700 | Israel Foreign Ministry[9] | |||
| 1930 | 0 | Israel Foreign Ministry[9] | |||
| 1931 | 17,277 | 109 | 134 | 17,532 | 1931 census of Palestine[23] |
| 1938 | 0 | 20,400 | Village Statistics, 1938[24] | ||
| 1945 | 24,400 | 150 | 0 | 24,560 | Village Statistics, 1945[25] |
| 1961 | 37,868 | Jordanian census[26][27] | |||
| 1967 | 38,073 | 136 | 38,348 | Israeli census[28] | |
| 1997 | n/a | n/a | 119,093 | Palestinian census[29] | |
| 2007 | n/a | n/a | 163,146 | Palestinian census[30] |
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)