Ain Ebel

Ain Ebel (عين إبل; Syriac: ܥܝܢ ܐܒܠ) is a village located in the Lebanese Upper Galilee in the Caza of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatieh Governorate in Lebanon, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of Beirut. Its inhabitants are predominantly Christian.

Since October 2023, Hezbollah, an Islamist Shiite militant group, has been using the area as a launching point for attacks on Israel. This prompted many villagers, particularly women and children, to flee the area and seek safety in Beirut.

Etymology
Historian Taissier Khalaf writes that the name of the town means "Spring of the Monk" because in Aramaic Ain means spring and Ebel means the hermit, who wears a monk's garb. While Anis Freiha and Friar Youakim Moubarak believe that Ebel is a corruption of the word Baal, in reference to the Semitic god associated with storms and thus irrigation, and combined with Ain then the name may mean the "Spring of Irrigation". Edward Henry Palmer, in 1881, wrote that it meant "The Spring of Camels" taking a literal translation for the name from classical Arabic.

Variation of spelling
Due to the different standards in the Romanization of Arabic, the spelling of the name of the village has sometimes varied, such as Ainebel, Aïn Ebel, Ain Ebl, Ain Ibl, Ayn Ibil, Ain Ibil, Aïn Ibel, and Ain Ibel.

History
Ain Ebel is a historic village with numerous archaeological sites.

Prehistory
Lower Paleolithic implements were found in Ain Ebel, and historian believe that prehistoric man lived and hunted in the area from the most ancient times. A Heavy Neolithic site of the Qaraoun culture was discovered by Henri Fleisch west of Ain Ebel in the Wadi Koura, with tools found suggested to be part of a forest dweller's toolkit at the start of the Neolithic Revolution. The region stretching from the north of Ain Ebel to south near Yaroun is rich in flint instruments, and the whole surrounding region as far as Jish contains megalithic ruins, perhaps pre-Canaanites.

Ancient history
In the Babylonian Talmud, Ain Ebel is referred to as `En Bol, and identified as a village northwest of Safed, where minorities practiced a form of niddah in which female infants were made to undergo the ritual immersion before their mothers.

Historian John T. Durward argues that Ain Ebel, located west of Kedesh of Naphtali (an ancient town documented in Judges 4:6, 10), is probably the biblical town of Abel Beth Ma'acah, and was the spiritual retreat of the clergy from Tyre and Acre.

On the outskirts of the village is an area called Chalaboune where Ernest Renan, a French historian and philosopher who was sent by Emperor Napoleon III to Lebanon, found ancient graves. According to Renan, Ain-Ebel had beautiful underground passages and large buildings in colossal stones and admirable carved sarcophagi in two remarkable places, Douair and Chalaboune, which he believed was the Biblical town of Shaalabbin of the Tribe of Dan. On one of the graves, Renan discovered a bas-relief of Apollo and Artemis. The relief was transported to France where it remains today at the Louvre. In 2011 and after months of negotiation, the Musée du Louvre agreed to make an exact replica of the bas-relief, which was delivered to the municipality of Ain Ebel in November.

Middle Ages and early Modern period
It is believed that the village has been continuously inhabited at least since the 15th century when Christians from the north of Lebanon migrated to lower elevations in the south to cultivate feudal lands.

In his book, Salut Jerusalem: Les memoires d'un chretien de Tyr a l'epoque des Croisades, the Lebanese historian, Bechara Menassa, wrote that the people of Ain Ebel were in touch with the Crusaders in Toron, modern Tebnine. Menassa described how a Frankish monk killed a wild animal in Ain Ebel.

Late Ottoman period
In January 1837, Ain Ebel was hit by the Galilee earthquake, which devastated the South all the way to Safad and Tiberias.

By the mid-nineteenth century, Ain Ebel had become the principal village of Christianity in the Upper Galilee, and in 1861 it was chosen for the first religious retreat organized in the Holy Land where 55 priests from the archdioceses of Tyre and Acre gathered for a reunion.

Ain Ebel is mentioned in a Christian anthology, containing contributions from ministers and members of various evangelical denominations published in the United Kingdom in 1866: "Forwards we marched, with light spirits, through close woods, varied by occasional clearings, like what are called the 'rides' in old English forests; and sometimes we arrived at snug villages or prospects of such by the names of Teereh, Hhaneen and Ain Ibil, the latter at two hours from Tibneen. The people are Christians, and they cultivate silk and tobacco...

A poor Maronite priest in his black robes and dark blue turban, came up to me, and, leaning on his staff, represented the sad story of his village (Ain Nebel) the day before, when of the subordinate officers of Tamar Bek, going round to inspect the Christians in their compulsory and unpaid labour at the lime-kilns, and finding the work of one of the men not equal to the task exacted, shot him dead on the spot."

In 1875 Victor Guérin visited, and noted 800 Maronite and 200 Greek Orthodox villagers.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described 'Ain Ibl as a: "Well-built modern village, with a Christian chapel ; contains about 1,000 Christians (800 Maronites and 200 United Greeks). It has vineyards on the slope of the hill on which the village is placed, and olives in the valley below. Good water supply from springs in the valley."

P. Engbert writes that the inhabitants of Ain Ebel offered the Jesuits in 1888 a fairly large lot of land after almost all the inhabitants signed the petition which was presented to R. P. Lefebvre.

In 1889, the village harvest was bad and an epidemic spread among the townspeople, lasting all winter and killing more than fifty people.

French Mandate
The village celebrated the arrival of High Commissioner Gouraud to Lebanon by flying the flag of France and playing the French anthem. By 1920, Ain Ebel had a population of 1,500, living in about 300 houses.

Massacre of 1920
While delegates from the Shia Conference of El-Hujair were in Damascus swearing allegiance to King Faisal, an act the Maronites of Jabal Amel considered threatening, a Shia gang led by Mahmoud Bazzi, which "proceeded from brigandage to confronting France and its Christian friends in the south", attacked Ain Ebel on May 5, 1920, pillaging and killing more than 50 people. It appears that the gangs responded to a call for jihad. The people of Ain Ebel defended the town from sunrise to sunset until they ran out of ammunition.

A contemporary Franciscan document chronicling the event states that attackers abandoned themselves in the violence, massacring children in the arms of their parents before killing them, raping young women and then killing them, and burning people who were still alive. The survivors fled south to Haifa until French ships took them back to Tyre where General Gouraud promised the Maronite Patriarch to punish those who had caused the massacres and destruction. The town was completely destroyed, and the damage done to the two churches, school and convent, were evidence of sectarian malice. The neighboring villages of Debel and Rmaich were also attacked so after 12 days of plundering and massacres, the French arrived and suppressed all activities in Jabal Amil region.

While awaiting to return to their village, it was reported that a soldier, in the service of the English, offered the villagers to sell their properties to the Zionists because they were not guaranteed a return to Ain Ebel, but they all refused. This was yet another example of how the Christians of the Tyre district were under a lot of pressure to abandon their land and emigrate out of the area. The massacres hardened Maronite opinion in favor of Jabal Amil being part of Greater Lebanon, which borders were cemented at the San Remo conference in 1920.

Later French rule
During the French Mandate, the network of paved road expanded, coinciding with the introduction of automobiles in Lebanon. The arrival of the first car in a village became a celebratory event, and this was true in Ain Ebel, where the inhabitants, dressed in their Sunday best, gathered in the church square to welcome the first car to drive through the village. The French planned to build an automobile road to connect the southern villages with those of Mandatory Palestine. The original plan was to build the road from Bint Jbeil via Yaroun and Rmaich, but the people of Ain Ebel protested, knowing the significance of such a road for the development of their town, and in the end, they were able to convince the French government to change the plan and have the road run through the village.

During World War II, the Vichy French had a line of widely spaced blockhouses that stretched from the coast to the inland heights, reaching Ain Ebel. During the Syria–Lebanon Campaign to liberate Lebanon and Syria from the Vichy, Australian Captain Douglas George Horley was ordered to clear Ain Ebel. Australian Brigadier J. E. S. Stevens decided that he would seize Aitaroun, Bint Jbel, Ain Ebel, Yaroun, Rmaich, Ayta ash Shab, Ramié, Jereine, Aalma ech Chaab and Labouna to cut a road from Al-Malkiyya to the French frontier road so as to make a second gateway into the coastal zone. The Australian squad, guided by Meir Davidson's squad, finally captured the town of Bint Jbeil and the villages of Aitaroun and Ain Ebel. After taking Yaroun and Bint Jbeil, Ain Ebel was found to have been abandoned by the Vichy.

Contemporary history
In October 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Ain Ebel received Palestinian refugees, especially from the village of Eilabun via Meiron, who stayed in the church for three days before being relocated to the Mieh Mieh refugee camp.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the village was often caught in the skirmishes between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israel Defense Force. Israel imposed a food and fuel blockade on Christian villages, such as Ain Ebel and Qlaiaa, forcing the inhabitants to deal with Israel. Christian militia arrived in Ain Ebel and neighboring Christian villages in August 1976 to open a new line of confrontation against the PLO strongholds in neighboring villages.

Ain-Ebel native, Monsignor Albert Khreish was abducted from his home on April 24, 1988. A week later on May 1, 1988, Monsignor Albert Khreish, who was head of the Maronite Spiritual Affairs Court, and nephew of Cardinal Anthony Peter Khoraish, was found dead in the pine forest outside of Ghazir. Khreish, who was shot 30 times, was an authority on international law and had served on the Maronite religious tribunal and lectured at the Government-run Lebanese University. His death was believed to be politically motivated, but the case was unsolved.

2006 Lebanon War
In July 2006, Ain Ebel, like other villages that string Lebanon's southern border, such as Debel, Qaouzah, Rmaich, and Yaroun, was caught in the 2006 Lebanon War between Lebanon and Israel. The village and its surrounding valleys were attacked by Israël. During the conflict, the village witnessed ferocious battles with missiles destroying many houses and orchards and leaving the townspeople besieged and without bread for three weeks.

After allegations that Hezbollah was using humans as shields, the Human Rights Watch visited Ain Ebel on several occasions, and their "investigations revealed that this was wrong, because Hezbollah was defending Lebanon from Israeli attacks that were endangering civilians" when they launched rockets from or near civilian homes, adding that on July 24, around 9:30 am, a convoy of 17 vehicles, fleeing Ain Ebel also were attacked by Israël , and put civilians under attack. Residents of Ein Abel informed Human Rights Watch investigators that Hezbollah had declared several fields "off limits" to the locals following the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, later using these areas to construct military installations.

Death of Elias Hasrouni
Elias Hasrouni, a veteran Lebanese Forces official, was first thought to have died in a car crash on Sunday, August 6, 2023, but an autopsy later revealed that he was killed and many, including Samir Geagea, believed the murder was politically motivated. Samir Geagea declared Hasrouni's death an assassination, pointing the finger at Hezbollah as the crime occurred deep within areas controlled by them but that accusation was never proven. Politician Samy Gemayel also hinted that Hezbollah might have been behind the killing. The residents of Ain Ebel, one of the few Christian villages in the predominately Shiite province, one of Hezbollah's main power bases, are mostly supportive of Hezbollah's largest political ennemy, the Lebanese Forces, and the murder of Hasrouni created sectarian tentions. Two months later, Hasrouni's wife, Yvette Sleiman died in a car accident, but it was unclear whether her death was also politically motivated.

2023 Lebanon-Israel border conflict (8 October 2023 - present)
Ain Ebel, about 7.5 km (4.7 mi) from the border with Israel, was caught in the crossfire during the 2023 Lebanon-Israel border conflict. While the village, like other neighboring Christian villages, was not aligned to Hezbollah, Israeli attacks led some villagers, especially the women and children, to evacuate to Beirut. Only 40% of the population, mostly adult men, remained in the village. The Saint-Joseph and Saints-Cœurs Schools closed amid the war after three of their students where killed on November 5 on the road between Aitaroun and Ain Ebel by an Israeli strike. On November 23, 2023, several rockets hit Ain Ebel as a result of the Iron Dome intercepting 48 missiles launched by Hezbollah. As residents prepared for a subdued Christmas under the shadow of the ongoing conflict, United Nations peacekeeping handed out toys on Saturday, December 23 to some 250 children whose families had remained in Ain Ebel and in the nearby villages of Rmaich and Debel.

Geography
Located in the mountainous region of southern Lebanon, known as Belad Bechara in Jabal Amel, or the Lebanese Upper Galilee, Ain Ebel occupies several hills with elevation ranging from 750 to 850 meters above sea level. There are three natural springs in Ain Ebel, including Tarabnine, Tahta and Hourrié, and in the valley between Ain Ebel and Hanine is Ain Hanine.



Climate
The village has a Mediterranean climate and enjoys four seasons with autumn and spring being mild but rainy, winter being cold and sometimes snowy and summer being dry and very pleasant with average temperatures between 25 - 27 C.

Geology
Deposits of bitumen, a black mixture of hydrocarbons obtained naturally, is found in Ain Ebel. Flint is also found; it was excavated and used to build tools by ancient dwellers of the region.

Vegetation
The main agricultural products are olives, almonds, chestnuts, pecans, grapes, figs, pomegranates, and apples. Oak and pine woods can be found on the outskirts of the village.

In January 2023, perennial oak trees were illegally cut down in the western woods of the town, and while the culprit, a resident of Ayta ash Shab, was arrested, he was believed to be close to Hezbollah and was eventually released by a decision from the Nabatieh Public Prosecutor.

During the 2023-2024 Lebanon-Israel border conflict, the Israeli army conducted airstrikes on the forest areas between Ain Ebel and Bint Jbeil. Additionally, Israel's use of white phosphorus and other incendiary weapons burned tens of thousands of olive trees and other crops in the border area.

Demographics
The people of Ain Ebel are mainly Maronite Catholics, Greek Catholics and Armenian Catholics. In 2009, there were 410 members of the Saint-Élie parish of the Melkite Church in the village.

Education
There are three schools in the village: two private schools (Saints-Cœurs and Saint Joseph) and one public school. Of the three, the oldest is Saints-Cœurs, which was established by the Jesuits in 1881. Within a decade, Ain Ebel had two schools, and Missionary Père Angelil requested the aid of the nuns of Ain Ebel in 1890 to teach for eight days the inhabitants in neighboring Mi'ilya after which two nuns remained there to manage the new school.

Architecture
There are three historic churches, built in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and a convent that was built in 1857.

A shrine, consisting of a 200-foot tower to be topped by a 45-foot statue of the Virgin Mary, is being built in Ain Ebel at the north entrance of the village, funded primarily by expatriates.

Religious structures
Chapels
 * Chapel of the Sacred Heart
 * Saint Mary's Chapel

Churches
 * Our Lady of Ain Ebel Maronite Catholic Church
 * Saint Elie Greek Catholic Melkite Church
 * The New Saint Elie Greek Catholic Melkite Church

Convents
 * Convent of the Sacred Heart

Shrines
 * Saint Charbel Shrine
 * Our Lady of Lourdes Monument
 * Em El Nour Marian Shrine

Festivals
Each summer, a grand festival is organized in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The festival culminates on the Assumption of Mary on August 15. Outdoor events and open-air concerts are held in the village's square. The festivities peak with a procession of the Virgin Mary icon.

Hiking
Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with the Community Support Program (CSP), Ain Ebel's western slopes, which are covered with olive and oak trees, became connected in 2022 to the Lebanon Mountain Trail, a long-distance hiking trail that crosses Lebanon from north to south.

Notable figures from Ain Ebel
Academia
 * Joseph Toufik Khoreich, Author & Prof of Philosophy and Civilization
 * Dr. Hiam Sakr, the president of the American University of Science and Technology

Arts
 * George Diab, actor
 * Maher Diab, artist
 * Raimundo Fagner, singer
 * Louay Khraish, filmmaker
 * Karol Sakr, singer
 * Pascale Sakr, singer
 * Francois Diab, author of Le Mirage humain
 * Wadih Chbat, author of Constitution of Lebanon: History, Text, Amendments

Business
 * Adel Khreich
 * Elissar Farah Antonios
 * Hanna Elias Khraish

Clergy
 * Anthony Peter Khoraich, the late Cardinal, is the most prominent modern figure from Ain Ebel. He was the second Lebanese Patriarch to become cardinal of the Catholic Church.
 * Bishop Maroun Sader
 * Archimandrite Boulos Samaha
 * Monsignor Elie Barakat
 * Monsignor Albert Khreish
 * Clementine Khayat, a Catholic nun from Alep who wrote several articles in the journals, El-Mashriq recounting the events of the massacre of May 5, 1920 that she witnessed.

Diplomacy
 * Ambassador Mounir Khoreich

Journalism
 * Jean Diab, journalist and an editorial secretary at the La Revue du Liban
 * Wafai Diab, who was believed to be the first Arabic-language journalist to interview an American President at the White House.
 * Nasrat Khoreich, Correspondent for An-Nahar and L'Orient-Le Jour

Politics
 * Elias El Hasrouny, Coordinator of The Lebanese Forces - Bint Jbeil Region

Military
 * Trooper Marc Diab
 * Etienne Saqr (Abu Arz), Leader of the Guardians of the Cedars (GoC) (ultranationalist Group)
 * Cadet Officer Jana Sader, First female Lebanese fighter pilot
 * Kayrouz Barakat, Commander-in-chief of the Lebanese Forces Infantry Units (1981-1983)

In literature

 * In Half a Lira's Worth: The Life and Times of Vivronia by Mick Darcy
 * "The Kazzy family, in the early 1920s, were small landholders in the village of Ain Ebel, in Southern Lebanon

In media

 * YouTuber Anthony Rahayel featured the village in a special episode in 2022.