Surif

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Surif (Arabic: صوريف) is a Palestinian city in the Hebron Governorate, about 25 kilometers northwest of Hebron. In 2017, about 17,287 people lived there, all of them Muslims. The town covers around 15,000 dunams of land, mostly used for farming olives, wheat and barley. Surif has seven mosques and four schools. Ahmad Lafi is the mayor. The name Surif is thought to come from a personal name.

History

Ottoman period
- Surif is believed to have been founded sometime after the 16th century.
- In 1838 it was described as a Muslim village located between Hebron and Gaza.
- By the mid-19th century, Surif and nearby villages expanded their farming westward into the surrounding hills.
- In 1863, traveler Victor Guérin noted about 700 residents, with a few ancient remains nearby.
- An Ottoman village list from around 1870 recorded 87 houses and a population of 265 men.
- The 1883 Palestine Exploration Fund describe Surif as a small village on a low hill with olives to the south.
- The 1896 population was recorded as 1,164.

British Mandate
- The 1922 census counted 1,265 Muslims in Surif.
- The 1931 census counted 1,640 people in 344 houses.
- The 1945 statistics recorded 2,190 Muslims and detailed land use: 38,876 dunams of land, with portions used for plantations and irrigable land, cereals, and built-up areas.

Jordanian rule
- After the 1948 war and 1949 armistice, Surif came under Jordanian control.
- The 1961 Jordanian census found 2,827 inhabitants in Surif.

Post-1967
- Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Surif has been under Israeli occupation.
- Israel has confiscated about 1,213 dunams of Surif land since 2000, and roughly 1,300 dunams could lie behind the West Bank barrier when built.

Recent events
- In April 2023, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Surif for several days, injuring residents with stones and damaging olive trees and homes. The army responded with force during the assaults.
- In 2025, Surif experienced a period of violent settler attacks known as the Surif Pogrom, with killings and injuries and widespread damage to crops and property. The violence occurred during June and July 2025 and involved settlers backed by the Israeli military.

Demography
- The people of Surif largely trace their roots to nearby Beit Ummar and possibly other areas, with some residents historically coming from Salqa near Gaza, Ashkelon, and Gaza City.
- Surif has also been known by the name Kuffin a-Tahta, a reference to historical settlement patterns of Beit Ummar families living there in earlier times.

External links and references
- Surif is listed among towns in the West Bank and has been the subject of historical and contemporary reports about land, demographics, and conflicts in the Hebron area.