Shuqba has a total area of 13,990 dunams (1,399 ha; 3,460 acres), and the built-up area comprises 616 dunams (61.6 ha; 152 acres).[3] Shuqba was home to 5,459 inhabitants in 2017.[1]
Dorothy Garrod studied the transition of Mesolithic to Neolithic culture represented in a cave on the northern bank of Wadi an-Natuf near Shuqba in 1928. The name "Natufian Culture" was then coined to describe the inhabitants of the southern Levant at this crucial juncture in human history.[5]
Sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found here.[6] In 1596 Shuqba was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Ramla, which was under the administration Gaza Sanjak. In the tax records that year it had a population of 49 household who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a press for olives or grape syrup; a total of 2,600 akçe.[7]
In 1870, Victor Guérin noted that the houses of Kharbet Choukba were very roughly built; and that the village contained about two hundred inhabitants.[8] Under the name Schakba, an Ottoman village list of about the same year, 1870, found 39 houses and a population of 141, though the population count included only men. It was noted that it was located north of Deir Qaddis, and having Bayt Nabala to the west.[9][10]
In the 1945 statistics, the population was 840, all Muslims,[14] while the total land area was 15,013 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[15] Of this, 1,496 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 5,053 for cereals,[16] while 16 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[17]
In 1961, the population of Shuqba was 1,241 persons.[18]
Post-1967
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Shuqba has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 885, of whom 54 originated from the Israeli territory.[19]
After the 1995 accords, 8.4% of Shuqba’s land was classified as Area B, and the remaining 91.6% as Area C. The Israeli West Bank barrier is partly built on village land, isolating 1,352 dunums (10%) of the village on the west side of the wall. Israel has also confiscated village land for bypass roads, military checkpoints, and for the construction of an Israeli stone crusher. The extracted stone material is transferred to Israel, in breach of international law.[20][21]
