The town, bordered by Sa'ir and al-Shuyukh to the east, Beit Ummar and al-Arroub refugee camp to the north, and Kharas and Nuba westwards,[3] is located 916 m above sea level, and is the highest inhabited place in Palestine.

[1] The Arabic name conserves the biblical toponym for the site, (Hebrew:חַלְחוּל; Greek: Αἰλουά/Άλοόλ; Latin Alula,)[4] which is believed to reflect a Canaanite word meaning "to tremble (from the cold)".

[7] The archaeological digs at Burj as-Sur have uncovered the remnants of an ancient fortress city of the mid Bronze Age, presumably associated with the Hyksos.

During the late Second Temple period, Halhul (Greek: Alurus) and its immediate environs were considered a part of Idumea, presumably because of its Idumean inhabitants who converted to Judaism under John Hyrcanus.

[11] A considerable amount of pottery has been unearthed bearing inscriptions in ancient Hebrew, most of them reading "To the king" (LMLK) and mentioning names of locations nearby.

[12] During repairs to the Nabi Yunis shrine, a slab of limestone was discovered there with a Fatimid-era epitaph inscription, which is currently stored in the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem.

The original description of the epitaph by Abdullah el-Azzeh dated it to 674 and claimed it was the oldest Islamic inscription discovered in Palestine.

The nisba 'al-Harami' indicated the man belonged to the Haram clan of the Judham tribe which had been established in the region throughout the early Islamic period (7th–11th centuries).

[14] The chronicler Ali of Herat documented in 1173 that Halhul was a part of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and contained the tomb of Yunis ibn Matta (Jonah, son of Amittai).

[15] In 1226, the Ayyubid sultan al-Mu'azzam Isa had one of his mamluks, the governor of Hebron Rashid al-Din Faraj, construct the minaret of Halhul's mosque.

[14][16] That same year, the geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited Halhul, reporting that it lay between Hebron and Jerusalem and contained the tomb of Jonah.

It had an all Muslim population of 92 households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, vineyards and fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives.

[19] Edward Robinson visited Halhul in 1852, describing its surroundings as "thrifty", with numerous fields, vineyards, cattle, and goats.

He mentions graves dating from the Jewish period carved in the rocks, a spring, Ain Ayoub (Job's spring) on the southern side of the hill which furnished the locals with water; a mosque Djama'a Nebi Yunis (mosque of the prophet Jonah) built of ancient stone, foreign access to which was forbidden.

[28] According to the British official Keith-Roach, after permission had been obtained, the officers... instructed that they be kept there [in an open cage] and he gave them half a pint of water per diem.

According to Indian Army Medical standards, four pints of water a day is the minimum that a man can live upon exposed to hot weather.

[3] 30 September 2000 21-year-old Halhul resident, Muhammad Yunes Mahmoud 'Ayash a-Z'amreh, was injured by Israeli forces while in Beit Ummar and died of his wounds four days later on 3 October 2000.

[36] 22 October 2000 25-year-old Halhul resident Na'el 'Ali Zama'arah was shot dead by Israeli security forces during a clash that took place after a funeral service.

The IDF operation also destroyed a police station, several houses, and a machine shop suspected of manufacturing weapons for Palestinian militants.

The IDF also arrested Jamal Hasan Abu Ra'sbeh, a member of Force 17, and Yasser Arafat's personal guard.

[43] On 22 June 2007 Halhul resident Shadi Rajeh 'Abdallah al-Mtur was shot dead while walking to a grocery store contiguous to an Israeli checkpoint, after failing to obey an order to stop.

[36] On 6 October 2011, two men from Halhul were arrested on charges of having murdered Asher and Yonatan Palmer as a result of a stone-throwing incident near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba on 23 September 2011.

[48] It is built atop Mount Nabi Yunis, the highest peak in the West Bank at 1,030 meters (3,380 ft) above sea level.

[49] Half of the population is engaged in agriculture—tomatoes and squash being major forms of produce—on 10,000 of the estimated 19,000 dunams of fertile land surrounding the town.

Some 8,000 dunums remain uncultivated because of Israeli practices of confiscating land and building settlements, or from water shortages and lack of developmental capital.