Haret Hreik (Arabic: حارة حريك) is a mixed Shia and Maronite Christian municipality, in the Dahieh suburbs, south of Beirut, Lebanon. It is part of the Baabda District. Once an agricultural village, Haret Hreik lost its rural identity due to the wave of refugees from Southern Lebanon who settled in the town and made it another urban neighborhood of Dahieh.[1]
On 3 September 1985, during the War of the Camps, gunmen from the Amal militia killed thirteen Palestinian civilians in Haret Hreik.[2]
Haret Hreik is located northeast of the Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport and north of the towns of Laylake and Bourj el-Barajneh, west of Hadath and south of Chyah. The district is the defacto epicenter of the Shia group Hezbollah. The district was heavily damaged in the July 2006 Hezbollah War by the Israeli airforce that destroyed 640 kilometres (400 miles) of roads, 73 bridges, and 31 other targets such as sea ports, water and sewage treatment plants, electrical facilities, 25 fuel stations, 900 commercial structures, up to 350 schools and two hospitals, and 130,000 residences.[3]
In July 2024, Israeli military announced that they had targeted and killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike launched by Israeli fighter jets on a building in the southern suburb of Beirut.
2006 Lebanon War
editThe area was largely destroyed during the 2006 Lebanon War. It was estimated that close to 200 buildings were destroyed in the town during the first week of Israel's attack on Lebanon in 2006, with a total of more than 700 structures destroyed or damaged by the end of the war and thousands of civilians injured or dead, while the international community stood still.[4] The town has since undergone significant reconstruction, replacing destroyed and damaged buildings.
Culture and education
editHaret Hreik houses Umam Documentation & Research, an organization handling extensive archive related to Lebanon's history. Umam also runs The Hangar, a contemporary arts space featuring regular events and exhibitions.
The town also hosts three main libraries with millions of books. The libraries are always crowded with students, readers and researchers from different ages and backgrounds. In addition to that, two main hospitals operate in the area (Sahel General Hospital and Bahman hospital),[5][6] providing services to thousands of residents. The area hosts many cultural activities on regular basis, including shopping carnivals,[7] art contests and cultural talks.
Sport
editShabab Al Sahel FC, a football club playing in the Lebanese Premier League, is based in Haret Hreik.[8]
Notable people
edit- Michel Aoun (born 1935), former President of Lebanon
- Lokman Slim (1962–2021), publisher
- Samira Awad (born 2000), footballer
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Cambanis, Thanassis. A privilege to die: inside Hezbollah's legions and their endless war against Israel, page 146 & 317
- ^ Middle East International No 258, 13 September 1985, Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP; Jim Muir pp.8-9
- ^ "Hizbullah HQ destroyed in Israeli attacks". 14 July 2006. Retrieved 30 July 2024 – via The Guardian.
- ^ Lambeth, Benjamin S. Air Operations in Israel's War Against Hezbollah: Learning from Lebanon and GEtting It Right in Gaza, page 175
- ^ "Sahel General Hospital". sahelhospital.com. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ^ "Bahman Hospital". Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ^ "مهرجان تسوق – بلدية حارة حريك". Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
- ^ يوم, أخبار كل. "اخبار لبنان | حريق في نادي شباب الساحل في حارة حريك". KLYOUM.COM (in Arabic). Retrieved 25 October 2020.[permanent dead link]
External links
edit
Media related to Haret Hreik at Wikimedia Commons
- Haret Hreik, localiban
- Google map of Hurat Hurayk neighborhood, Beirut, Lebanon — Satellite photograph of the Haret Hreik neighborhood [Dahieh district], Beirut, Lebanon, before the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
- High resolution DigitalGlobe photograph of Hurat Hurayk neighborhood, Beirut, Lebanon — Satellite photograph of the Haret Hreik neighborhood [Dahieh district], Beirut, Lebanon, 22 July 2006
