[2][3] Qalqilya is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority (as part of Area A), while remaining under Israeli military occupation.

Qalqilya was known as Calecailes in the Roman period, and Calcelie in the Frankish sources from the early Medieval times.

[7] In 1596, Qalqilya appeared in Ottoman tax registers (transliterated as Qalqili) as a village in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Bani Sa'b in the Liwa of Nablus.

It had a population of 13 Muslim households and paid a total of 3,910 akçe in taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives.

[20] According to Sami Hadawi, the town had been "one of the most prosperous in Palestine, owning extensive orange groves and serving as one of the main vegetable markets of the country.

During the war, many inhabitants from Kafr Saba, Abu Kishk, Miska, Biyar 'Adas and Shaykh Muwannis resettled in Qalqilya.

[23] Sami Hadawi claims that the armistice lines established in 1949 "severed all [Qalqilya's] orange groves in favour of Israel," leaving the town "landless except for its rocky areas towards the east.

During the fighting a paratroop company was surrounded by Jordanian troops and escaped under close air-cover from four Israeli Air Force aircraft.

[28] In his memoirs, Moshe Dayan wrote that these actions ultimately constituted "collective punishment" which was contrary to government policy.

[31] As part of the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), control of Qalqilya was transferred to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on 17 December 1995.

[32] In 2003, the Israeli West Bank barrier was built, encircling the town and separating it from agricultural lands on the other side of the wall.

The monument was unveiled at a ceremony attended by the Qalqilya District Governor Rafi Rawajba and two other Palestinian officials.

[1] Hamas won the 2006 municipal elections in Qalqiliya and one of its members, Wajih Qawas, became mayor, although he was incarcerated by Israel for much of his term.

On 12 September 2009, the PNA dismissed Qawas for allowing Qalqiliya's debt to grow unchecked, failing to attract international funding for city projects and ignoring orders by the Palestinian government.

[43] Human rights groups criticized Qawas's dismissal, condemning the intervention by the central Palestinian authorities in the affairs of an elected official.

[44] Between 1967 and 1995 almost 80 percent of Qalqilya's labor force worked for Israeli companies or industries in the construction and agriculture sectors.

[13] Israel's construction of the barrier began in 2002 and isolates Qalqilya from the north, west, south, and half of its eastern side, leaving a corridor in the east connecting it with smaller Palestinian villages and hamlets.

The barrier has also separated 1,836 dunams of mostly agricultural lands and open spaces within Qalqilya's jurisdiction from the city proper.

In the Qalqilya governorate, the NGO Cultural Forum Society (جمعية منتدى المثقفين الخيرية)[46] played a role in publicizing the residents' economic and political problems due to the occupation, the wall, and settlements.