Hebron , Arabic Al-Khalīl, City (pop., 2005 est.: 160,500) in the West Bank, southwest of Jerusalem. It is a sacred city of Judaism and Islam as the home and burial place (at the Cave of Machpelah) of the patriarch Abraham. King David made Hebron his capital briefly in the 10th century bc. Except for a period of Crusader control in the 12th century, various Muslim dynasties ruled the city from ad 635 until after World War I (1914–18). It was part of the British mandate of Palestine from the early 1920s until the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, when it came under the control of Transjordan (later Jordan). Along with the rest of the West Bank, it was annexed by Jordan in 1950 but was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War (1967). It remained under full Israeli administration until 1997, when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed on a partial Israeli pullout from Hebron and other West Bank cities.
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