Al-Masmiyya al-Kabira
| al-Masmiyya al-Kabira | |
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 al-Masmiyya al-Kabira
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| Arabic | المسمية الكبيرة |
| Name meaning | from "to be lofty" |
| Also spelled | al-Masmiyya |
| Subdistrict | Gaza |
| Coordinates | 31°45′27″N 34°47′05″E / 31.75750°N 34.78472°ECoordinates: 31°45′27″N 34°47′05″E / 31.75750°N 34.78472°E |
| Palestine grid | 129/129 |
| Population | 2,520 (1945) |
| Area | 20,687 dunams 20.7 km² |
| Date of depopulation | July 8, 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Bene Re'em,Hatzav,Yinnon,Achawa |
Al-Masmiyya al-Kabira (Arabic: المسمية الكبيرة) was a Palestinian village in the Gaza Subdistrict, located 41 kilometers (25 mi) northeast of Gaza. With a land area of 20,687 dunams, the village site (135 dunams) was situated on an elevation of 75 meters (246 ft) along the coastal plain. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Before the war, it had a population of 2,520 in 1945.
In 1596, Al-Masmiyya was a village in the nahiya of Gaza with a population of 385. It paid taxes on crops such as wheat and barley and other produce such as honey and goats. Al-Masmiyya was mentioned by the Syrian Sufi teacher and traveller Mustafa al-Bakri al-Siddiqi (1688-1748/9) in the first half of the eighteenth century, and in the 1780s, the French traveller Volney noted that the village produced a great deal of spun-cotton.
In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village, which he found to have seven hundred inhabitants. Around the well were stones, some large, and apparently ancient. The village was surrounded by plantations of tobacco, watermelons and cucumbers. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that “El-Mesmije” had 243 houses and a population of 656, though the population count included only men.
The adjectival al-Kabira ("major") was later added to Masmiyya's name to distinguish it from the nearby al-Masmiyya al-Saghira, established in the mid-19th century. In the late 19th century, al-Masmiyya al-Kabira was laid out in a trapezoid-like pattern, with the long base of the trapezoid facing west. The village was surrounded by gardens and its houses were constructed of adobe bricks or concrete. The most recent expansion of it was westward and southwestward.
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