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Naqoura (Arabic: الناقورة, Enn Nâqoura, Naqoura, An Nāqūrah) is a small city in southern Lebanon. Since March 23, 1978, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been headquartered in Naqoura.
Naqoura
الناقورة | |
|---|---|
  Naqoura Location within Lebanon | |
| Coordinates: 33°07′6″N 35°08′24″E | |
| Grid position | 163/281 PAL |
| Country |  Lebanon |
| Governorate | South Governorate |
| District | Tyre District |
| Highest elevation | 60 m (200 ft) |
| Population | |
• Total | 4,150[1] |
| Time zone | +2 |
| • Summer (DST) | +3 |
According to E. H. Palmer (1881), the name means "the horn" or "the trumpet". This name rises from a misconception on the part of the Arab-speaking inhabitants, as the name, [..] Tyre means in Arabic a horn or trumpet; therefore Ras Sur (the headland or ladder of Tyre') is rendered by Nakura, the synonym for Sur. The word is also connected with [..] to peck or perforate."[2]
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In 1875, during the late Ottoman era, Victor Guérin described it: "The village stands upon a hill, on the south of which is a deep way, through which flows a spring called 'Ain Nakurah, which waters plantations of fig-trees and olives mixed with palms. The village contains 400 Metawileh. The houses are modern, but some of the materials appear ancient by their regularity and dimensions. There must, therefore, have been an older village here, the name of which was probably similar, if not identical."[3] According to Guérin, the place is associated with the historic Ladder of the Tyrians (Scala Tyriorum).[4]
In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A village, built of stone, containing about 250 Moslems, situated on low hills by sea-coast. Gardens of olives, palms, pomegranates, figs, and arable land ; brushwood to the east. Two springs with plentiful supply of water."[5]
In 1978 UNIFIL established its headquarters around the former toll station beside Naqoura. Some of the buildings marked the end of the Lebanese section of the Beirut-Haifa railway which had been closed since Jewish forces blew up the tunnel into Palestine in 1948.[6]
Following the 1982 invasion Nakoura became part of the Israeli Security Zone. In November 1983 Israeli and Lebanese officials began a series of meetings in the UN headquarters in Naqoura to negotiate an Israeli withdrawal.[7]
In the autumn of 1986 Lahad’s South Lebanon Army constructed a small port in Nakoura from which a ferry connected to Jounieh, north of Beirut.[8] On 3 September 1991 a Swedish soldier serving with UNIFIL, was killed when he was caught in a shootout between Palestinians and SLA gunmen in Naqoura.[9] Twelve days later, 15 September, another Swedish soldier was killed and five Swedish and French soldiers were wounded when Palestinian gunmen intending to carry out an attack on the Israeli city of Nahariya en route to their target by boat mistakenly landed in Naqoura and confronted UNIFIL troops. One of the gunmen was also killed and another injured.[10]
During the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Lebanese Health Ministry officials reported two deaths from an Israeli airstrike on a car in Naqoura. UN peacekeepers accused Israel of a "deliberate and direct" attack on their positions in Lebanon, following multiple incursions, including one incident in Ras Naqoura where Israeli military vehicles reportedly damaged a fence and concrete structure.[11] The IDF acknowledged that Hezbollah rockets had hit UNIFIL’s Naqoura headquarters, lightly wounding eight Austrian soldiers. The EU condemned the violence, urging protection for UN personnel and the continuation of UNIFIL’s peacekeeping mission.[12][13]
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