The village stood on flat terrain on the southern coastal plain and was bordered on the east by Wadi al-Mari. Secondary roads linked it to adjacent villages, such as Yasur and Isdud, on the coastal highway. A military airport was constructed near the village during the Mandate; it was built on flat land to the southwest of al-Batani al-Sharqi, due south of its twin village, al-Batani al-Gharbi. 
The earliest mention of al-Batani indicated that it was originally founded as a 'ranch' for the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (A.D. 661–680) In 1596, al-Batani al-Sharqi was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza) with a population of thirty-nine. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and fruit, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, and vineyards.
In the late nineteenth century, the village of al-Batani al-Sharqi was situated on low ground and extended from east to west in a rectangular shape. Patches of gardens and a number of wells surrounded the village. Construction expanded westward―the wadi's winter flooding impeded eastward expansion―along the road that linked it to al-Batani al-Gharbi until the distance between the two villages shrank to less than 2 km. Village houses, made of adobe, with wood-and-cane roofs, were built close together along narrow alleys. The two al-Batanis shared an elementary school that was opened in 1947; its initial enrollment was 119 students. The population was Muslim, and the village had a mosque and a number of small shops. The inhabitants worked mainly as grain and citrus farmers. In 1944/45 a total of 319 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 4,663 dunums were allocated to cereals; 474 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Agriculture was both rainfed and irrigated from the many wells on the village land, which also supplied drinking water. In addition to crop cultivation, the community engaged in animal husbandry and poultry raising. An archaeological site in al-Batani al-Sharqi contained relics such as a mosaic floor, a basin, the foundations of ancient buildings, and pottery fragments.
