Bint Jbeil بنت جبيل | |
|---|---|
Municipality | |
 | |
  Bint Jbeil | |
| Coordinates:33°07′15″N35°26′1″E / 33.12083°N 35.43361°E /33.12083; 35.43361 | |
| Grid position | 190/280PAL |
| Country |  Lebanon |
| Governorate | Nabatieh Governorate |
| District | Bint Jbeil District |
| Area | |
• Total | 9.10 km2 (3.51 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 700 m (2,300 ft) |
| Population (2001) | |
• Total | 30,000 |
Bint Jbeil (Arabic:بنت جبيل,romanized: Bint Jubayl;Levantine pronunciation:[bɪntʒbeːl], "daughter of (the) little mountain" or "daughter ofByblos") is the second largest municipality in theNabatiye Governorate inSouthern Lebanon.
The town has an estimated population of 30,000. Its exact population is unknown, becauseLebanon has not conducted a populationcensus since 1932.[1]
ThePhoenician origin of the towns' name suggest it dates back to that period. The name itself has several meanings as the word Bint inArabic means Daughter. Therefore it could be "daughter of the mountain". In the town there are evidence from theRoman andByzantine period, as seen in temple ruins, columns and houses.[2]
In 1596, it was named as a village, "Bint Jubayl" in theOttomannahiya (subdistrict) ofTibnin under theliwa' (district) ofSafad, with a population of 238 households and 60 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid taxes on agricultural products, such aswheat,barley, olive trees, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues", a press forolive oil orgrape syrup, and a fixed sum; a total of 25,220akçe.[3][4]
In 1838Edward Robinson noted it as a largeShia village.[5]
In 1875,Victor Guérin found it to be a village with one thousandMetualis.[6]
In 1881, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A very largeMetawileh village, containing about 1,100 to 1,500 Metawileh. A market is held here every Thursday. The village is well built, and has a mosque. The situation is surrounded by higher hills, though the village is on high ground. The cultivation around is grapes, olives, and arable land. Water is supplied from a spring and manycisterns and large birket."[7]
In the 1930s, Bint Jbeil was a majortobacco-producing town with an educated populace. The town and its vicinity produced around 40,000 kilograms a year by 1936.[8]
In 1936, the "tobacco revolt" againstFrench rule broke out in Bint Jbeil following the killing of three protesters bygendarmes. The town, politically divided between the pro-French Bazzi landowners andBeydoun merchants, was a significant tobacco producer in Lebanon. The revolt was led by young 'Amili intellectuals disillusioned with both traditional leadership and French Mandate policies. Key figures included Musa al-Zayn Sharara, who later became the town's mayor, and 'Abd al-Husayn al-Abdallah. These leaders, representing a new generation educated inNajaf, were critical of the traditional leadership and their pro-Mandate stance. The conflict also revealed tensions between the religious leadership, represented by 'Abd al-Husayn Sharaf al-Din, and the emerging political activists. Sharaf al-Din supported the return of Muhammad Said Bazzi, a pro-French figure, to Bint Jbeil, which led to public backlash and mockery.[8]
With the rise of Palestinian militias in Lebanon theLebanese Army attempted to control their activities. In October 1969 the army surrounded 150 Palestinians near Bint Jbeil. In six days of fighting sixteen of them were killed.[9]
Bint Jbeil was briefly occupied byIsrael in 1978 duringOperation Litani, and again from 1982 until 2000 during the1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict, when it was severely depopulated; as much as 75% of the population was reported to have left for other parts of Lebanon.[10] It was the scene of occasional attacks onIsraeli military forces, such as acar bombing carried out by aHezbollah member on 25 April 1995 which destroyed the Israeli administrative headquarters in the town.[11][12] Almost three weeks later, 15 May, a bomb near Bint Jbeil killed six Israeli soldiers and wounded four.[13]Hezbollah took control of the town following the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon.
As the largest town in the area, Bint Jbeil is sometimes known as the "Capital of the Liberated South" (among Lebanese Shi'ites). It is considered one of the centers with symbolic history forHezbollah.[14] Under Lebanon's complicated system ofsectarian electoral representation, theBint Jbeil electoral district is allocated 3 Shi'ite seats in the country's parliament.[15] Hezbollah did well in the area in the 2005elections in Lebanon, winning the local seats to add to its nationwide tally of 14.
During the2006 Lebanon War, Israel began an offensive againstHezbollah and the conquest of Bint Jbeil was one of the first objectives for theIDF. At the start of the operation aMaglan reconnaissance unit was ambushed and had to be rescued byEgoz commandos.[16] In four days of fighting seventeen Israeli soldiers were killed and most of the town destroyed (SeeBattle of Bint Jbeil). On July 15, Israeli missile killed 4 civilians, aged between 60 and 85.[17]
Reconstruction as of early 2007 had been going very slowly, leading to reports of dissatisfaction among the residents.[18] Then-Iranian presidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad visited the town in 2010 to show solidarity for Hezbollah and the local victims of Israel's attacks.[19]
In 2024, during theIsraeli invasion of Lebanon,Lebanese Army troops opened fire on Israeli soldiers after strikes that killed two soldiers.[20]
| Religion | Percent | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shia Islam | 97.87% | |||
| Sunni Islam | 1.63% | |||
| Christian | 0.24% | |||
| Others | 0.26% | |||
In 2014,Muslims made up 99.50% of registered voters in Bint Jbeil. 97.87% of the voters wereShiite Muslims.[22]
At the end of 2022, the town had 586 registered Syrian refugees, which represented a decline from the 1,180 registered there in the summer of 2014.[23][24]
| Climate data for Bint Jbeil (Ain Ebel), elevation 765 m (2,510 ft) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 12.8 (55.0) | 14.0 (57.2) | 16.2 (61.2) | 20.8 (69.4) | 25.6 (78.1) | 29.2 (84.6) | 30.2 (86.4) | 31.2 (88.2) | 28.7 (83.7) | 26.8 (80.2) | 21.0 (69.8) | 15.3 (59.5) | 22.7 (72.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 9.3 (48.7) | 10.0 (50.0) | 12.1 (53.8) | 16.0 (60.8) | 20.2 (68.4) | 23.5 (74.3) | 24.6 (76.3) | 25.1 (77.2) | 23.1 (73.6) | 20.8 (69.4) | 16.1 (61.0) | 11.5 (52.7) | 17.7 (63.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 6.9 (44.4) | 7.3 (45.1) | 8.6 (47.5) | 11.6 (52.9) | 15.3 (59.5) | 18.1 (64.6) | 19.5 (67.1) | 20.2 (68.4) | 18.8 (65.8) | 16.8 (62.2) | 12.8 (55.0) | 9.1 (48.4) | 13.8 (56.7) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 195 (7.7) | 175 (6.9) | 102 (4.0) | 53 (2.1) | 6 (0.2) | 1 (0.0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 4 (0.2) | 32 (1.3) | 65 (2.6) | 181 (7.1) | 814 (32.1) |
| Source:FAO[25] | |||||||||||||
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