Marwahin ( ar, مروحين; ''Marwāḩīn'') is a town in
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
, on its border with
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. A group of 23 residents, mostly children, were killed by Israel during the
2006 Lebanon War while attempting to evacuate under Israeli orders.
Name
According to E. H. Palmer, the name comes either from: . "a place where the wind blows, effacing the traces of dwellings,' or from ."a fan".
History
In 1875, Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...
found here many ruins, with some Bedouin camping among the ruins.
In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) found here: "Traces of ruins, one tomb with fourteen loculi, three cisterns, and one olive-press."
Modern period
The people of the village are Sunni Muslims.
On 31 March 1993 an Israeli tank was destroyed and its crew killed in an ambush near Marwahin. The DFLP
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP; ar, الجبهة الديموقراطية لتحرير فلسطين, ''al-Jabha al-Dīmūqrāṭiyya li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn'') is a secular Palestinian people, Palestinian Marxism ...
claimed responsibility for the attack. Two weeks later, 13 April, a further three Israeli soldiers were killed in the security zone.
During the 2006 Lebanon War, Marwahin was the site of ground exchanges between Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
and Hezbollah, which ended with a massacre of civilians. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, the villagers of Marwahin reported that there had been some Hezbollah fighters and weapons in their village.['Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War,']
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
Volume 19, No. 5(E) September 2007 pp.8,15,44,66,147-
Lebanese civilian refugees from the town were first ordered by Israeli forces to flee the area, and given two hours to do so. They were then slaughtered in a convoy hit by an Israeli helicopter crew when they proceeded to obey the order to evacuate.[
] Only two persons survived the massacre, by pretending to be dead. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
, no weapons were found in the vehicles destroyed by the Israeli attacks and personnel who tried to recover the victims' bodies were attacked. Human Rights Watch cited it as one of nine cases where they had ascertained that Israeli warplanes targeted civilian vehicles on roads during the 2006 hostilities. It stated that 23 civilians from this one village were killed by the Israeli strike, including 14 children and 7 women.[HRW, 2007, pp]
147
151 The study reveals that the prime cause for the high Lebanese civilian death toll was Israel’s repeated failure to abide by a fundamental obligation of war rules.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Localiban
{{Tyre District
Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000
Populated places in Tyre District
Sunni Muslim communities in Lebanon