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 the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, 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 The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...

while attempting to evacuate under Israeli orders.

Name

According to

E. H. Palmer Edward Henry Palmer (7 August 184010 August 1882), known as E. H. Palmer, was an England, English oriental studies, orientalist and explorer. Biography Youth and education Palmer was born in Green Street, Cambridge the son of a private schoo ...

, 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 Mino ...

found here many ruins, with some

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

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

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

s, and one olive-press."

Modern period

The people of the village are

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

Muslims. On 31 March 1993 an

Israeli Israeli may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel * Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel * Modern Hebrew, a language * ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008 * Guni 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

, Marwahin was the site of ground exchanges between

and

Hezbollah Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...

, 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,'

Volume 19, No. 5(E) September 2007 pp.8,15,44,66,147- Lebanese civilian

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s 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

, 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
IAAWikimedia commons

Localiban {{Tyre District Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000 Populated places in Tyre District Sunni Muslim communities in Lebanon