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. Church endowments and land deeds mention it as Betheras. Bayt Daras was one of twin villages carrying this name, inhabited in the
15th century. In 1459,
Mamluk records mention Bayt Daras al-Surgha (Lesser Bayt Daras)'s endowment as a
waqf.
Ottoman Empire In 1517, Bayt Daras was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire with the rest of
Palestine. In first Ottoman
tax register of 1526/7 the village had a population of 22
Muslim households, and it belonged to the
nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza (
Gaza Sanjak). In 1596 the village also appeared as being in the
nahiya 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. During the
17th and
18th centuries, the area of Bayt Daras experienced a significant process of settlement decline due to
nomadic pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but the land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages. 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, while 88 dunams were built-up land. One quarter of the land was owned by a single family, one of whose survivors still has their title deeds in her keeping in a Khan Younis refugee camp. A school was established there in 1921 and in its first year had 234 students enrolled, taught by 5 teachers in six classes. In addition to agriculture, residents practiced
animal husbandry which formed was an important source of income for the town. In 1943, they owned 653 heads of
cattle, 489
sheep over a year old, 103
goats over a year old, 35
camels, 10
horses, 18
mules, 299
donkeys, 6307
fowls, 2454
pigeons, and 23
pigs.
1948 war and destruction According to Palestinian accounts, Beit Daras villagers lived peacefully with residents of
Tabiyya, a walled
kubaniya (Jewish colony) on its borders. Jews brought their produce, spoke the dialect fluently and their local doctor, Tsemeh, would care for Beit Daras' sick people when called on for assistance. The only anomaly was the occasional sound of gunfire practice in Tabiyya which soldiers from the British army appeared to be training their neighbours in the use of arms. Occasionally British soldiers on horseback made harassing forays into Beit Daras. According to
Ramzy Baroud, Beit Daras began to be subjected to heavy shelling on March 27–28, 1948, during which nine villagers died and much of the crops were destroyed. The village was subject to an Israeli offensive military assault four times. It was defended by the
Sudanese Army and a number of local militiamen and, The objective of the
Palmach's operational plan, 'Operation Lightning' (
Mivtza Barak) was to compel the Arab inhabitants of the area to 'move' and by striking one or more population centres to cause an exodus, which was foreseen given the wave of panic that was sweeping Arab communities after the
Deir Yassin massacre. Bayt Daras was targeted to be surrounded, to have the villagers surrender and hand over their arms, and if this order was resisted, it was to be mortared, stormed and 'dealt with in the manner of
scorched earth'. The village was attacked and captured on May 11, 1948 by the
Givati Brigade during
Operation Barak, just prior to the outbreak of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War. The village suffered some 50 casualties, and many houses were then blown up, and wells and granaries sabotaged. Bayt Daras had a population of 3,190 living in 709 houses in 1948. In Baroud's account, a massacre took place as people fled the village. According to the memoirs of
Gamal Abdel Nasser, the empty village was reoccupied by Sudanese forces in June, but they left after a signaling error caused them to be shelled by their own side. Structures in the village were made of stone foundations with vaulted rooms. There were also two elementary schools and two mosques, all of which were demolished after its capture. Following the war the area was incorporated into the
State of Israel. In 1950 the
moshav of
Giv'ati was built on the site of the village, with two other moshavim,
Azrikam,
Emunim, established on land that had belonged to Bayt Daras. In 1992 the village site was described: "The only remain of village buildings are the foundations of one house and some scattered rubble. The site is overgrown with wild vegetation interspersed by cactuses and eucalyptus trees. At least one of the streets is clearly recognisable. The surrounding fields are cultivated by the settlements." ==Culture==