In 1875, Victor Guérin climbed a small hill to reach the Al-Tira village. It consisted of about a dozen houses, built of adobe or assorted materials.[11]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as: "A small village, principally of adobe, on a hill-top, above a deep gorge. The water appears to be brought from the springs in the valley."[8]
In the 1945 statistics the population of Et Tira and Irgun Borokhov was 200; 150 Arabs and 50 Jews, while the total land area was 10,207 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[2][3] Of this, Arabs used 54 dunums for plantations and irrigable land, 4,326 for cereals,[14] while 29 dunums were classified as built-up (urban) land.[15]
1948, aftermath
In his diary, Weitz wrote of the inhabitants of Qumya and Al-Tira in the Baysan valley on the 26 March 1948:
"Not taking upon themselves the responsibility of preventing the infiltration of irregulars ... They must be forced to leave their villages until peace comes.[16]
In order to block the return of the villagers,[17] the kibbutz Gazit was established on the land of village land in September 1948, 1.5 km southwest of the village site.[5][6]
In 1992 the village site was described: "The ruins of stone houses, covered with grass and thorns, are all that remain of al-Tira. The site is fenced in and servers Israeli farmers as pasture land. Cupress trees grow on surrounding land."[18]