List of Ottoman post offices in Palestine

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The List of Ottoman post offices in Palestine describes the post offices that operated in Palestine under the Ottoman Empire.

After 1834, a new imperial postal system and better transportation greatly improved communications. International and domestic post offices served major Palestinian cities such as Acre, Haifa, Safed, Tiberias, Nablus, Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Gaza. An 1840 edict led to more regular routes and services.

From 1841, the Beirut route was extended to Palestine, connecting Beirut–Damascus–Acre–Jerusalem. Local postal work was managed by provincial governors, with leases auctioned each March. In 1846 Italian businessmen Santelli and Micciarelli operated Jerusalem–Ramle–Jaffa–Sûr–Saida.

By 1852 there was a weekly service from Saida via Sûr, Acre (linked to Beirut), Haifa, and Jaffa to Jerusalem, and Nablus joined in 1856. In 1856 two new routes began: Jerusalem–Hebron–Gaza and Tiberias–Nazareth–Chefa Omer–Acre. In 1867 the Jerusalem–Jaffa route ran twice a week, and from 1884 the Nablus–Jaffa route had daily despatches.

Initially all facilities were relay stations, with postmarks made at Beirut. A few Djebel Lubnan markings found at Staura (Lebanon) are thought to come from a relay station. In the 1860s many relay stations became branch post offices with their own postmarks, usually negative seals at first. Postmarks for the postal section often read “posta shubesi,” while the telegraph section used “telegraf hanei.”

In 1860 there were ten postal facilities in Palestine; by 1900 there were twenty, and by 1917 thirty-two. Some offices are known only from archival material or lists, and no widely used postmarks from those facilities have been recorded.

Traveling post offices existed on three routes, and no TPO postmarks are known for other railway lines. The lines (with years of completion) were: Acre–Beled esh-Shech (1912), Afule–Djennine (1913), Djennine–Messudshi (1914), Messudshi–Tulkarem–Ludd (1915), Wadi Sarrar–Et-Tine–Beersheba, Beersheba–Hafir (1915), Et-Tine–Gaza (1916), and Deir el-Balah–Beersheba (1916).