Qalqilya

Qalqilya, also spelled Qalqiliya, is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the administrative center of the Qalqilya Governorate. It had a population of 51,683 at the 2017 census. The city is surrounded by the Israeli West Bank wall, with a narrow gap in the east controlled by the Israeli military and a tunnel to the Palestinian town of Hableh. It is administered by the Palestinian National Authority as part of Area A while remaining under Israeli military occupation. The name is variously explained as a type of pomegranate or the gurgling of water, and the place was known as Calecailes in the Roman period. In the nineteenth century it was described as a large village, and a municipal council was established in 1909. Its land was cut off by the 1949 armistice lines and it came under Israeli rule in 1967.