At the start of the 1936 disturbances the British Mandate authorities used Auja as a concentration camp for arrested Palestinian Arab leaders including Awny Abdul Hadi. It was also used to hold Jewish Communists who were being deported. The prisoners were later transferred to the army base at Sarafand.[16] The central route across the desert to the Suez Canal crossed from El Auja to Ismailia, until 1948 this was the only paved road between Palestine and Egypt.[17] During the British Mandate of Palestine it was part of the District of Beersheba.[18] During the British Mandate the location was a prison camp.[19]