Hebron Governorate

31.5°N 35.1°E / 31.5; 35.1

Hebron Governorate
Governorate
2018 United Nations map of the area, showing the Israeli occupation arrangements in the governorate
Country	Palestine
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

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]

Emirates proposal

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]

Localities

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]

Cities

• Dura
• Halhul
• Hebron (capital)
• Yatta
• ad-Dhahiriya

Municipalities

The following localities have municipality status from the Ministry of Local Government of the Palestinian National Authority.

Bani Na'im Beit 'Awwa Beit Ula Beit Ummar Deir Sammit Idhna Kharas

Nuba Sa'ir as-Samu Surif Tarqumiya Taffuh

Village councils

The following have populations over 1,000 persons.

Al Baqa Beit 'Amra Beit Einun Beit Kahil Beit ar-Rush al-Fauqa al-Burj Deir al-'Asal al-Fauqa ad-Duwwara Hadab al-Fawwar al-Heila Hureiz Imreish Jinba Karma al-Karmil Khalet al-Maiyya Khursa Ruq'a

al-Kum Al-Muwarraq As Simiya Khirbet Safa Khirbat al-Simia Kuseis al-Majd Qalqas Qila al-Ramadien ar-Rihiya ash-Shuyukh Shuyukh al-Arrub as-Sura at-Tabaqa al-Uddeisa Zif

Refugee camps

• al-Arroub
• al-Fawwar

Demographics

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]

See also

• Governorates of Palestine