Marwahin

Marwahin (Marwāḩīn) is a town in Lebanon, on its border with Israel.

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Marwahin was the site of ground exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah. UNIFIL forces reported seeing Hezbollah fire rockets from the vicinity of the village and during operations in Marwahin, and Israel Defense Forces found Hezbollah weapons in the basement of the village mosque.^[1] According to Human Rights Watch, the villagers of Marwahin reported having problems with Hezbollah fighters and weapons infiltrating their village almost as soon as the war started. Hezbollah fighters ignored villagers' pleas to leave the village and parked a white van packed with weapons next to the village mosque, where it remained until it was destroyed by an Israeli strike. Unknown to the villagers, Hezbollah had also placed a large cache of rockets and other weapons in the home of a villager who was sympathetic to Hezbollah. In one case, Human Rights Watch reported that a villager spotted three Hezbollah fighters carrying weapons and rockets behind her home, hiding the weapons in blue blankets. When she objected, one of the Hezbollah "fighters turned his automatic weapon on her, and told her to 'shut up and go inside.'” UNIFIL officials refused assistance to the Marwahin villagers.^[2]

Lebanese civilian refugees from the town were killed by Israeli Defense Force artillery and helicopter gunship fire while stopped by the sea on the road north of the village.^[3]According to Human Rights Watch, the sudden appearance of two parked vehicles, including a pickup truck, in line of sight of another Israeli warship the morning after Hezbollah attacked an Israeli Navy ship with a C-802 Silkworm anti-ship cruise missile "probably caused the Israelis to assume the broken-down civilian convoy was another Hezbollah missile firing team preparing to attack their ship."^[4]

Coordinates: 33°07′N 35°17′E / 33.117°N 35.283°E / 33.117; 35.283

References

1. ^ Arkin, William (August 2007). Divining Victory: Airpower in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War. Maxwell Airforce Base, Alabama: Air University Press. ISBN 978-1-58566-168-8. 
2. ^ "Why They Died". [Human Rights Watch]. September 2007. http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/05/why-they-died. 
3. ^ "Marwahin 15 July 2006 The anatomy of a massacre". Independent. 2006-11-30. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/marwahin-15-july-2006-the-anatomy-of-a-massacre-417917.html. Retrieved 2009-01-06. 
4. ^ "Why They Died". [Human Rights Watch]. September 2007. http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/05/why-they-died.