Marwahin Explained

Marwahin
Native Name:Arabic: مروحين
Settlement Type:Village
Pushpin Map:Lebanon
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Lebanon
Subdivision Type1:Governorate
Subdivision Name1:South Governorate
Subdivision Type2:District
Subdivision Name2:Tyre
Unit Pref:Imperial
Elevation M:660
Timezone:GMT +3
Coordinates:33.1086°N 35.2756°W
Grid Position:176/279 PAL

Marwahin (Arabic: مروحين; Marwāḩīn) is a town in Lebanon, on its border with Israel. During the 2006 Lebanon War, the town was attacked by Israeli forces which resulted in 23 civilians killed while trying to evacuate after Israel's warnings before the atack.

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".[1]

History

In 1875, Victor Guérin found here many ruins, with some Bedouin camping among the ruins.[2]

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."[3]

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 claimed responsibility for the attack. Two weeks later, 13 April, a further three Israeli soldiers were killed in the security zone.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6] [7] 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. It stated that 23 civilians from this one village were killed by the Israeli strike, including 14 children and 7 women.[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.

See also

Bibliography

. Victor Guérin. Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine. 3: Galilee, pt. 2. 1880. L'Imprimerie Nationale. Paris. French.

. Edward Henry Palmer. 1881. The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 49
  2. Guérin, 1880, p. 133
  3. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 179
  4. Middle East International No 450, 14 April (sic - actually June) 1993, Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP; April chronology p.15
  5. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/lebanon0907.pdf 'Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War,'
  6. News: Why do they hate the West so much, we will ask. Fisk . Robert. Robert Fisk. The Independent. 2009-07-01 . 2012-05-12.
  7. News: Marwahin 15 July 2006 The anatomy of a massacre. Fisk . Robert. Robert Fisk . . 2006-11-30 . 2016-08-12.
  8. News: Human Rights Watch and Israel: An Exchange . . 2006-11-02 . 2012-05-12.
  9. HRW, 2007, pp. 147-151