| Al-Ghuraba cemetery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Details | |
| Location | |
| Country | Lebanon |
| Coordinates | 34°26′36″N35°50′46″E / 34.4434°N 35.8462°E |
| Type | Public |
Al-Ghuraba cemetery is a cemetery in Tripoli, Lebanon. It has been used in the past for mass burials relating to the Lebanese Civil War and the 2007 Lebanon conflict. Since the 1970s the cemetery has been occupied by a number of makeshift homes and, in 2010, had a population of 1,000 people. In 2015 the housing condition was reported to be poor by Care International.
Al-Ghuraba cemetery is located near to the Bab-al-Tibbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighbourhoods of Tripoli. [1] The name means "strangers" in Lebanese Arabic. [2]
The cemetery has been used for mass burials of those killed in conflict. Amnesty International reported in 1989 that up to 200 men, women and children who were killed in Bab-al-Tibbaneh on 21 and 22 December 1986 may have been buried in a mass grave in the cemetery, excavated by bulldozer. Some of those killed were civilians caught in a crossfire during the Lebanese Civil War but others are alleged to have been Sunni Muslims summarily executed by Syrian troops and their allies. [3] On 4 October 2007 some 98 bodies were buried in the cemetery by the Lebanese government. These were alleged to have been the unclaimed bodies of Fatah al-Islam members killed during the 2007 Lebanon conflict. [4] [5]
Tripoli saw an influx of low-income migrants in the 1970s and 80s, lacking proper homes many chose to settle at the cemetery. [6] A 2010 Tripoli municipal study found some 1,000 residents, from 187 families, still living there in makeshift, self-built homes. [1] [6] A rising birth rate meant that the population was expected to increase. [6] Despite influxes of Syrian refugees during the Syrian Civil War the majority of residents were of Lebanese origin. [7] The land is largely state-owned, with a portion owned, under mortmain, by a mosque and there are occasional land disputes between the owners and occupants. [1]
A 2015 report by the British branch of Care International reported poor living conditions with 20% living below the Sphere standards for covered living space. [8] The houses are often of single-room, single-storey construction and many families lack any furniture. Walls, roofs and foundations are often lacking and the houses are damp and cold in winter. [1] Although the municipal authorities allowed the installation of some electricity supplies basic infrastructure remains poor and sanitation is by means of open sewer. [6] [1] There is poor access to water with 60% of toilet facilities lacking a sink with running water and three quarters of toilets lacking a door. [9] Incomes are low, though many families earn money by helping to bury the dead, despite being stigmatised for this. [1] Many of the children of the area do not attend school. [6] The municipal authorities have made plans to improve living conditions, including by constructing a new residential complex nearby. [6]
Some houses in the area were damaged by mortar fire during the Bab al-Tabbaneh–Jabal Mohsen conflict. [1] The inhabitants of Al-Ghuraba appeared in the 2007 documentary film The Strangers. [2]
North Lebanon is the northern region of Lebanon comprising the North Governorate and Akkar Governorate. On 16 July 2003, the two entities were divided from the same province by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The division was known as Law 522.
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Nahr al-Bared is a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, 16 km from the city of Tripoli. Some 30,000 displaced Palestinians and their descendants live in and around the camp, which was named after the river that runs south of the camp. Under the terms of the 1969 Cairo Agreement, the Lebanese Army does not conventionally enter the Palestinian camps, and internal security is provided by Palestinian factions.
Fatah al-Islam is a Sunni Islamist militant group established in November 2006 in a Palestinian refugee camp, located in Lebanon. It has been described as a militant jihadist movement that draws inspiration from al-Qaeda. It became well known in 2007 after engaging in combat against the Lebanese Army in the Nahr al-Bared UNRWA Palestinian refugee camp. Following its defeat at Nahr el-Bared, the group relocated to the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon in 2008. As of 2014, after the death or capture of many members, most of the surviving members of Fatah al-Islam are thought to have joined other groups in Lebanon and Syria including the Free Syrian Army, Al-Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
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Rifaat Ali Eid is the leader of the Arab Democratic Party as of 25 December 2015. The party has the largest support of Lebanese Alawites, and its base is Tripoli, Lebanon, in the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood. Rifaat took over its leadership after his father, former MP Ali Eid, died in 2015.
Between 2011 and 2017, fighting from the Syrian civil war spilled over into Lebanon as opponents and supporters of the Syrian Arab Republic traveled to Lebanon to fight and attack each other on Lebanese soil. The Syrian conflict stoked a resurgence of sectarian violence in Lebanon, with many of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims supporting the rebels in Syria, while many of Lebanon's Shi'a Muslims supporting the Ba'athist government of Bashar Al-Assad, whose Alawite minority is usually described as a heterodox offshoot of Shi'ism. Killings, unrest and sectarian kidnappings across Lebanon resulted.
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From its inception, the Syrian Civil War has produced and inspired a great deal of strife and unrest in the nation of Lebanon. Prior to the Battle of Arsal in August 2014, the Lebanese Army has tried to keep out of it and the violence has been mostly between various factions within the country and overt Syrian involvement has been limited to airstrikes and occasional accidental incursions.
The following lists events that happened in 2007 in Lebanon.
On 10 January 2015, nine people were killed and more than 30 wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowded café in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli, Lebanon.
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The Battle of Tripoli was a major battle during the middle of the Lebanese Civil War in late 1983. It took place in the northern coastal city of Tripoli between pro-Syrian Palestinian militant factions and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Yassir Arafat. It resulted in the withdrawal of PLO and mostly ended their involvement in the war.
Evidence of settlement in Tripoli dates back as early as 1400 BCE. In the 9th century, the Phoenicians established a trading station in Tripoli and later, under Persian rule, the city became the center of a confederation of the Phoenician city-states of Sidon, Tyre, and Arados Island. Under Hellenistic rule, Tripoli was used as a naval shipyard and the city enjoyed a period of autonomy. It came under Roman rule around 64 BCE. The 551 Beirut earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Byzantine city of Tripoli along with other Mediterranean coastal cities.