Qlaileh Explained

Qlaileh
Other Name:Leileh
Native Name:القليلة
Settlement Type:Town
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:30
Timezone:GMT +3
Coordinates:33.1964°N 35.2311°W
Grid Position:171/289 PAL

Qlaileh (Arabic: القليلة ) is a town in the Tyre District in South Lebanon.

Name

According to E. H. Palmer in 1881, the name Leileh comes from a female proper name; it also means “night”.[1]

History

In 1875, Victor Guérin describes a ruin to the east of the village, which he calls Kh. Kleileh. "The upright of oil-presses, a winepress cut in the rock, with two compartments, one round and one square, and three broken sarcophagi, are all that remain here. A short distance south of this place he found another ruined hamlet, having a cistern cut in the rock, and an enormous millstone lying on the ground, called Kh. Ratieh".[2]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A small well-built stone village, containing about 50 Moslems, surrounded by olives and arable ground. The water supply is from Ain Zaheiriyeh."[3]

On 13 May 2021, shortly after the beginning of the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, a number of rockets – apparently Soviet-era short-range Grad projectiles – were fired from the coastal area of Qlaileh, just south of the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidieh towards northern Israel. According to some reports, three rockets were involved which all fell into the Mediterranean Sea, causing no damage.[4] [5] According to other sources, altogether five missiles were launched and two of them crashed onto Lebanese grounds, while three got lost off the coast.[6]

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. 9
  2. Guérin, 1880, p. 238; as given in Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 68
  3. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 50
  4. Web site: 2021-05-14. Lebanon: Rockets launched from coastal region towards Israel. 2021-05-18. Middle East Eye. en.
  5. Web site: Rose. Sunniva. 2021-05-14. Israel-Palestine tension unlikely to spill over to Lebanon for now despite rocket launch. 2021-05-18. The National. en.
  6. Web site: 2021-05-17. Two missiles fired towards Israel from southern Lebanon - TV. 2021-05-18. TASS.