Majdal Zoun
Majdal Zoun
مجدل زون | |
|---|---|
Municipality | |
  Majdal Zoun Location within Lebanon | |
| Coordinates: 33°09′07″N 35°13′39″E / 33.1519°N 35.2275°E | |
| Grid position | 171/283 PAL |
| Country |  Lebanon |
| Governorate | South Governorate |
| District | Tyre |
| Population | |
• Estimate (2024) | 4,500 |
Majdal Zoun (Arabic: مجدل زون; also spelled Majdalzoun or Majdel Zoun) is a village and municipality in the Tyre district of South Governorate, Lebanon, near the border with Israel.[1][2] It has about 4,500 inhabitants most of whom work in agriculture. The name means "watch-tower". The village appears in Ottoman tax records of the 16th century as Majdal Zurayd and in the Palestine Exploration Fund's survey of Western Palestine (1881) as El Mejdel. Since 2023 it has been struck repeatedly by Israeli air strikes. In June 2026 Israeli ground forces entered the village and demolished a tunnel that the Israeli military said was a Hezbollah facility.[3][4]
History
[edit]Ottoman era
[edit]In 1596, it was named as a village, Majdal Zurayd, in the Ottoman nahiya (subdistrict) of Tibnin under the liwa' (district) of Safad, with a population of 5 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, fruit trees, goats & beehives; in addition to occasional revenues and a tax on winter pastures; a total of 3,100 akçe.[5][6]
In 1881, the village was described under the name El Mejdel ("The watch-tower"[7]) in the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) as "A large and conspicuous village, containing about 400 Moslems ; it is situated on a hill, with figs, olives, and arable land. The water from birket; there are two cisterns in village."[8]
Israel–Hezbollah conflict
[edit]Majdal Zoun lies close to the Israeli border and has been hit by Israeli airstrikes since the Israel–Hezbollah conflict began in 2023.[9][10][11][12] In June 2026, Israeli ground forces operated in the village about ten kilometres inside Lebanon. The Israeli military said it had found a tunnel more than 200 metres long and 25 metres deep, with four launch shafts, twelve rooms including living quarters, and a store of weapons that included anti-tank missiles and drones.[13] It described Majdal Zoun as one of Hezbollah's "preparedness villages" and said the find showed that Hezbollah placed military infrastructure among civilians.[14][15] Late on 28 June, Israeli forces detonated explosives in the tunnel. Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that the tunnel had been destroyed.[16] Residents told L'Orient Today that the blast "cut the village in two", and that the tunnel ran under the most densely populated part of Majdal Zoun, including the main square, homes and the mosque. They also reported collapses in several places.[17]
Demographics
[edit]In 2014 Muslims made up 99.96% of registered voters in Majdal Zoun. 99.53% of the voters were Shiite Muslims.[18]
References
[edit]- ↑ "مجدل زون… واجهة أثرية بين أيادٍ متعثّرة وكسّارات مدمرة". جريدة البناء | Al-binaa Newspaper (in Arabic). Retrieved 2024-10-27.
- ↑ معجم قرى جبل عامل - الشيخ سليمان ضاهر العاملي - الجزء 2 - الصفحة 247
- ↑ "Majdal Zoun 'cut in two' after Israel dynamites alleged Hezbollah tunnel". l'Orient Today. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
- ↑ @greensoutherners; (30 June 2026). "Using Tens of Tons of Explosives Israel Destroys Majdal Zoun". Retrieved 2026-07-21 – via Instagram.
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 181
- ↑ Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 Archived 2019-04-20 at the Wayback Machine writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p.52
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p.151
- ↑ "Israeli strike kills woman and child in south Lebanon, sources say". Yahoo News. 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
- ↑ "Several wounded in two Israeli strikes in south Lebanon, health ministry says". Reuters. 2024-11-30. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
- ↑ AlTaher, Nada; Atallah, Nada Maucourant. "Woman and six-year-old girl killed in Israeli air strike near Lebanese border". The National. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
- ↑ "L'armée d'Israël annonce la découverte de tunnels du Hezbollah". Le Republicain Lorrain. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
- ↑ "i24NEWS". www.i24news.tv. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
- ↑ "Israeli army: Majdal Zoun tunnel shows Hezbollah used civilian areas for military sites". LBCIV7. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
- ↑ "Israeli army: Majdal Zoun tunnel shows Hezbollah used civilian areas for military sites". LBCIV7. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
- ↑ Kubovich, Yaniv (2026). "Israel Says It Destroyed Major Hezbollah Tunnel in South Lebanon".
- ↑ "Majdal Zoun 'cut in two' after Israel dynamites alleged Hezbollah tunnel". L'Orient Today. 2026-06-29. Retrieved 2026-10-05.
- ↑ https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/الجنوب/صور/مجدلزون/المذاهب/
Bibliography
[edit]- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Palmer, E.H. (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.
- Rhode, H. (1979). Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century. Columbia University. Archived from the original on 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
External links
[edit]- Majdel Zoun (archive.org), localiban
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: IAA, Wikimedia commons
