This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Deir Abu Mash'al (Arabic: دير ابو مشعل) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 24 kilometers (15 mi) west of Ramallah in the northern West Bank.

[5] There is a wall at the highest part of the village, with cisterns below it, which is assumed to be the remains of the 12th century Crusader castle named Bellifortis.

[6] The PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) visited the place (in 1873), and noted: "There are here indications of an important fort, apparently of Crusading times.

[5] Approximately one kilometer southeast of the village lies the large ruin called Khirbet Artabba, situated atop a hill.

[9] In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine and in the 1596 tax-records it was in the Nahiya of Jabal Quds of the Liwa of Al-Quds.

[11] In 1838 Edward Robinson noted Deir Abu Mesh'al on his travels in the region,[12][13] as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Zeid district, north of Jerusalem.

He further noted: "At the highest point I notice, on a large platform, the traces of a powerful construction, some of which are still inferior, and which was built with beautiful cut stones of a magnificent device.

Near these Moslem dwellings lay on the leveled rock several areas, perhaps dating back to the earliest antiquity, and which the present fellahs still use to beat their barley or wheat.

[16][17] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Deir Abu Meshal as "A small and partly ruinous stone village in a very strong position on a lofty hill.