Marwahin
مروحين
Village
Marwahin is located in Lebanon
Marwahin
Marwahin
Coordinates: 33°06′31″N 35°16′32″E / 33.10861°N 35.27556°E / 33.10861; 35.27556
Grid position176/279 PAL
Country Lebanon
GovernorateSouth Governorate
DistrictTyre
Elevation
2,170 ft (660 m)
Time zoneGMT +3

Marwahin (Arabic: مروحين; Marwāḩīn) is a town in Lebanon, on its border with Israel. A group of 23 residents, mostly children, were killed by Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War while attempting to evacuate under Israeli orders.[1][2]

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".[3]

History

In 1875, Victor Guérin found here many ruins, with some Bedouin camping among the ruins.[4]

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."[5]

Modern period

The people of the village are Sunni Muslims.[1]

On 31 March 1993 an Israeli tank was destroyed and its crew killed in an ambush near Marwahin. The DFLP claimed responsibility for the attack. Two weeks later, 13 April, a further three Israeli soldiers were killed in the security zone.[6]

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Marwahin was the site of ground exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a massacre of civilians. According to Human Rights Watch, the villagers of Marwahin reported that there had been some Hezbollah fighters and weapons in their village.[2]

Lebanese civilian refugees from the town were first ordered by Israeli forces to flee the area, and given two hours to do so.[2] They were then slaughtered in a convoy hit by an Israeli helicopter crew when they proceeded to obey the order to evacuate.[7][1] Only two persons survived the massacre, by pretending to be dead. According to Human Rights Watch, 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.[2] It stated that 23 civilians from this one village were killed by the Israeli strike, including 14 children and 7 women.[2][8][9] 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.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fisk, Robert (2006-11-30). "Marwahin 15 July 2006 The anatomy of a massacre". The Independent. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 'Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War,' Human Rights Watch Volume 19, No. 5(E) September 2007 pp.8,15,44,66,147-
  3. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 49
  4. ↑ Guérin, 1880, p. 133
  5. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 179
  6. ↑ Middle East International No 450, 14 April (sic - actually June) 1993, Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP; April chronology p.15
  7. ↑ Fisk, Robert (2009-07-01). "Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask". The Independent. Retrieved 2012-05-12.
  8. ↑ "Human Rights Watch and Israel: An Exchange". The New York Review of Books. 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2012-05-12.
  9. ↑ HRW, 2007, pp. 147-151

Bibliography

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