Arabic Al-Khalīl
City (pop., 1997 est.: 119,401) in the West Bank territory, 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. Various Muslim dynasties ruled the city from AD 635 until after World War I (1914–18), except from 1100 to 1260, when the Crusaders controlled it. It was part of the British mandate of Palestine from 1923 until the first Six-Day War (1967). It remained under full Israeli administration until 1997, when Israel and the {{link=Palestine Liberation Organization">Palestine Liberation Organization agreed on a partial Israeli pullout from Hebron and other West Bank cities.