Bal'a
Bal'a | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بلعا |
| • Latin | Bala'a (official) Balaa (unofficial) |
Southern Bal'a | |
Location of Bal'a within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°19′59″N 35°06′31″E / 32.33306°N 35.10861°E | |
| Palestine grid | 160/193 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Tulkarm |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality (from 1995) |
| • Head of Municipality | Ahmad Said Mansur |
| Area | |
• Total | 23,000 dunams (23.0 km2 or 8.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2017) | |
• Total | 7,822 |
| • Density | 340/km2 (880/sq mi) |
| Name meaning | Either "Swallowing", or "The hole in the millstone", |
Bal'a (Arabic: بلعا) is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate, located approximately nine kilometers northeast of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank and three kilometers away from the highway connecting Tulkarm with Nablus.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 6,604 in 2007 and 7,822 in 2017. In 1922, the town had a population of 1,259 nearly doubled to 2,220 in 1945. After Israel's occupation of the town in 1967 after the Six-Day War, Bal'a inhabitants numbered 3,800 after dozens of families from nearby towns such as, Deir al-Ghusun settled there after being expelled.