Map - Deir al-Balah (Dayr al Balaḩ)

Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah (دير البلح) is a Palestinian city in the central Gaza Strip and the administrative capital of the Deir el-Balah Governorate. It is located over 14 km south of Gaza City. The city had a population of 54,439 in 2007. The city is known for its date palms, after which it is named.

Deir al-Balah dates back to the Late Bronze Age when it served as a fortified outpost for the New Kingdom of Egypt. A monastery was built there by the Christian monk Hilarion in the mid-4th century AD and is currently believed to be the site of a mosque dedicated to Saint George, known locally as al-Khidr. During the Crusader-Ayyubid wars, Deir al-Balah was the site of a strategic coastal fortress known as "Darum" which was continuously contested, dismantled and rebuilt by both sides until its final demolition in 1196. Afterward, the site grew to become a large village on the postal route of the Mamluk Sultanate (13th-15th centuries). It served as an episcopal see of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem in Ottoman times until the late 19th century.

Under Egyptian control Deir al-Balah, whose population tripled through the influx of refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, was a prosperous agricultural town until its capture by Israel in the Six-Day War. After 27 years of Israeli occupation, Deir al-Balah became the first city to come under Palestinian self-rule in 1994. Since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, it has witnessed frequent incursions by the Israeli Army with the stated aim of stopping Qassam rocket fire into Israel. Ahmad Kurd, a Hamas member, was elected mayor in late January 2005.

"Deir al-Balah," which in Arabic translates as the "Monastery of the Date Palm," was named after the grove of date palms that laid west of the city. Its name dates back to the late 19th century, before which the city was locally known as "Deir Mar Jiryis" or "Deir al-Khidr" and "Deir Darum" in Ottoman records. "Mar Jiryis" translates as "Saint George" while in Islamic tradition al-Khidr could either refer to Saint George or Elijah. The inhabitants of Deir al-Balah associated al-Khidr with Saint George. The town had been named after al-Khidr, the most venerated saintly person throughout Palestine. The mosque in Deir al-Balah which bears his name is traditionally believed by locals to contain his tomb.

Up until the later Ottoman era, Deir al-Balah was referred to in Arabic as "Darum" or "Darun" which derived from the settlement's Crusader-era Latin name "Darom" or "Doron." That name was explained by the Crusader chronicler William of Tyre as a corruption of domus Graecorum, "house of the Greeks" (dar ar-rum). More recently, the eighteenth century scholar Albert Schultens supposed its roots are the Ancient Hebrew name "Darom" or "Droma", from the Hebrew root for "south", which referred to the area south of Lydda, i.e. the southern parts of the coastal plain and Judean foothills together with the northern Negev Desert. During early Arab rule, "ad-Darum" or "ad-Dairan" was the name of the southern subdistrict of Bayt Jibrin.