"كتيّب سوريا (بما في ذلك فلسطين). لندن: إدارة استخبارات الأركان البحرية، يونيو ١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎٢‎٣‎٨] (٧٣٨/٤٨١)

470 JUDAEA AND THE SOUTHERN DESERT
to the defences of an expanded Egypt, should the present
artificial frontier be moved north across the desert, and
with them various points on the western side of ‘Arabah
(see p. 665 f.).
Inhabitants
The inhabited places, exclusive of mere military or police
posts such as Rafah or El-‘Auja, are confined to the
neighbourhood of the sea, from which none are distant more
than 5 miles; the whole region between the Mediterranean
and ‘Arabah, some eighty miles across, is uninhabited except
by a few nomads. The few settlements, from south to north,
are : Khan Yunus, Beni Sel‘a (or Suweileh), ‘Abesan, and
Deir el-Balah. All are agricultural villages of fellahin with
wheat and barley fields, fig trees, date-palms, and vegetable
gardens : tobacco is grown at Beni Sel‘a. The population of
these places is variously given; the largest is Khan Yunus,
which has been described at different times as possessing
5,000 and 600-700 inhabitants ; the smallest is ‘Abesan,
with some 50 huts. There is wide cultivation of wheat
and barley on the maritime plain, the fields extending
almost the whole distance from Gaza to Beersheba, and
for miles east of Rafah and Khan Yunus, patches of culti
vation being found even among the interior sandhills. In
normal times considerable supplies of grain might be obtained ;
but Turkish requisitions of grain and labour since the begin
ning of the war must have exhausted accumulations and
largely diminished the output. A little cultivation of cereals
is found far inland beyond the limits of the plain, generally
along wadis or near wells, as, for instance, in the plain round
Tell el-Milh, in the Wadi Umm Halluf, and near Bir Mayein.
But these scanty fields are the result of sporadic efforts, and
depend on uncertain rains ; the above-mentioned valley of
‘Afn Ghadeirat appears to be the one example of irrigation.
The general conditions are indeed too unfavourable to en
courage permanent settlements, or the transformation of
Bedouin into fellahin as witnessed east of Jordan and the