Ottoman period Oral tradition suggests that Surif was founded after the 16th century. In 1838, Surif was described as a
Muslim village between Hebron and Gaza under the administration of
Hebron. By the nineteenth century, Ṣurīf and other Hebronite villages had extended their cultivation zones westward into the Shephelah, incorporating nearby ruined sites. This expansion reflected the combined effects of the Ottoman Land Code, local agricultural initiatives, and the stabilization of the region after the decline of Bedouin incursions. In 1863
Victor Guérin wrote that Surif had 700 inhabitants. He further noted that beside a
birket in the rock, a few
cisterns and an ancient
column shaft near a small mosque, all the construction was modern. An official
Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed 87 houses and a population of 265, counting men only. In 1883, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described Surif as "A small village on a low hill, with olives to the south." In 1896 the population of Surif was 1,164.
British Mandate According to the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Surif had a population of 1,265 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to 1,640, in 344 inhabited houses. In the
1945 statistics the population of Surif was 2,190, all Muslims, with a total of 38,876
dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,493 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 11.325 for cereals, while 54 dunams were built-up (urban) land. File:Surif 1944.jpg|Surif, British Mandate map, 1:20,000 File:Surif 1945.jpg|Surif 1945 1:250,000 File:Surif from Judean hills.jpg|View of Surif File:Surif cross-stitch.jpg|Example of traditional Palestinian cross-stitch from Surif (2006)
Jordanian rule In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War and the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Surif came under
Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 2,827 inhabitants in Surif.
Post-1967 Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Surif has been under
Israeli occupation. Israel has confiscated approximately 1,213
dunams of land from Surif since 2000, and approximately 1,300 dunums of Surif lands will be behind the
Israeli West Bank barrier, when it is finished. In April 2023, the village was attacked for three days by dozens of settlers who broke into the village, injured residents with stones and vandalized and burned olive trees and residences. The attack by the settlers was carried out with the backing of an army that used gunfire and tear gas against residents who tried to defend themselves from the attackers. Since 2021, six cases of settler attacks have been documented, which included destruction of crops, damage to residences and injury to residents.
Surif Pogrom (2025) The Surif pogrom refers to a series of violent attacks perpetrated by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli military, against the Palestinian town of Surif in the southern
West Bank during June and July 2025. On 19 June 2025, settlers from a newly established illegal outpost established on pribate Palestinian land opened fire on Palestinian residents attempting to extinguish fires deliberately set in farmland in the al-Qarnat area, murdering 48-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Mahmoud al-Hour and injuring eight others, some critically. The On 9 July 2025, another settler raid occurred in the al-Watwat area near the illegal settlement of
Bat Ain, during which a 45-year-old Palestinian man was shot in the thigh, others were physically assaulted, and large swathes of agricultural land were set ablaze. The attacks were part of a broader escalation in settler violence across the West Bank in 2025. The Palestinian Authority's Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported more than 2,100 settler attacks in the first half of the year, resulting in at least four Palestinian fatalities and widespread destruction of property and farmland. == Demography ==