Beit Yahoun () is a municipality in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

located near

Bint Jbeil Bint Jbeil (; Levantine pronunciation: , "daughter of (the) little mountain" or "daughter of Byblos") is the second largest municipality in the Nabatiye Governorate in Southern Lebanon. The Baydoun Family are known to be the best family out of ...

, in the

Nabatiye Governorate Nabatieh Governorate (, ') is one of the nine governorates of Lebanon. The area of this governorate is 1,058 km2. The capital is Nabatieh. Districts The governorate is divided into four districts (Aqdiya, singular qadaa) containing 130 ...

. Beit Yahoun is 117 km from

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

. It is 950 meters above sea level and covers an area of 485 hectares.

History

Visiting in 1875,

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

described it as a village with 150

Metuali Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

s (Shia Muslims). In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described it: "A village, built of stone, containing about fifty

Metawileh Lebanese Shia Muslims (), communally and historically known as ''matāwila'' (, plural of ''mutawālin''; pronounced as ''metouéle'' in Lebanese Arabic), are Lebanese people who are adherents of Shia Islam in Lebanon, which plays a major role ...

, situated on hill-top, with grapes and figs. There are no springs, but a birket and

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s for water supply.” Following the 1982 invasion Beit Yahoun became part of the Israeli security zone. On 4 October 1992

Hizbullah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

launched an attack on the

South Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; , ), also known as the Lahad Army () or as the De Facto Forces (DFF), was a Christianity in Lebanon, Christian-dominated militia in Lebanon. It was founded by Lebanese military officer Saad H ...

’s checkpoint in the village. Two senior SLA officers were killed, one of them believed to be responsible for the 8 November 1991 bombing of the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs le ...

. On 21 June 1997 six Irish soldiers serving with

UNIFIL The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (; ), or UNIFIL (; ) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, and several further resolutions in 2006 to con ...

were wounded, one seriously, whilst clearing mines on the road to Beit Yahoun. The IDF had laid the mines to protect a nearby SLA position which had resulted in the Irish having to use helicopters to reach their UNIFIL post. After lengthy negotiations the Israelis partially cleared the road. The Irish casualties occurred while they were clearing the remaining mines. On 15 May 1999 Hizbullah launched coordinated attacks on three SLA positions. The offensive was preceded by mortar and missile attacks on fourteen IDF and SLA compounds. The Bayt Yahoun outpost was overrun, its SLA commander killed and one of his soldiers taken prisoner. An APC was captured and later paraded in Beirut. Video footage of the attack was shown on Lebanese television.

Demographics

In 2014

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

made up 99.60% of registered voters in Beit Yahoun. 97.86% of the voters were

Shiite Muslims Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood to ...

. https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/النبطية/بنت-جبيل/بيت-ياحون/المذاهب/

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Beit Yahoun
Localiban *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Bint Jbeil District Populated places in the Israeli security zone 1985–2000 Populated places in Bint Jbeil District Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon