Kafra (),"The village", according to Palmer 1881, p. 23 is a municipality in Nabatiye Governorate, in the Bint Jbeil District of southern Lebanon, about from Beirut. The village is located in the south-western outskirts of the town of Tebnine, in the heart of the Lebanese Shia Muslim community of Jabal Amel. The village sits on an elevation of above sea level.
History
In the 1596 Ottoman tax records, the village, named Kfür Tıbnin was located in the Ottoman nahiya (subdistrict) of Tibnin under the liwa' (district) of Safad, with a population of 51 households and 12 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as wheat (4,290 akçe), barley (490 akçe), vineyards and fruit trees (1,560 akçe), goats and beehives (530 akçe), in addition to "occasional revenues" (300 akçe); a total of 7,170 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 179Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
In 1856 it was named Kefra on Kiepert's map of Palestine/Lebanon published that year,Kiepert, 1856, Map of Northern Palestine/Lebanon while in 1875, Victor Guérin visited and noted: “'Here are broken columns, tombs, presses, cisterns, and a great reservoir cut in the rock. Another tank is partly cut in the rock, and partly constructed with regular stones."Guérin, 1880, p. 387; as translated in Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p.116 Guérin further described how he reached the village, after climbing through "many terraces, where centuries-old olive trees grow", and that the village had succeeded an ancient site.Guérin, 1880, p. 387
In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the village (which it called Kefrah): "A village, built of stone, containing about 200 Metawileh, situated on hill-top, with olives and arable ground around. There is a large spring and masonry birket (pool) at the village."Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p.94
The current Bint Jbeil province was created in 1922 by French colonials.Ahmad Rida, Memoirs of History (مذكرات للتاريخ), Dar An-Nahar: Beirut 2009, pp. 138, 179, 180, 183, 227.
On 20 February 1992 the Israeli Army occupied Kafra and neighbouring Yater in a 24 hour incursion, backed by tanks, helicopters and heavy artillery. Around 100 buildings were destroyed including a mosque and a school.Middle East International No 422, 3 April 1992; Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP; Michael Jansen p.12 2 Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid and a young girl was killed in northern Israel by a subsequent rocket attack.Middle East International No 420, 6 March 1992; Gerald Butt p.7
On 5 August 1997 an Israeli special commando unit killed two Hizbollah commanders in Kafra. Three civilians were also killed.Middle East International No 558, 12 September 1997; Michael Jansen pp.4&6-7. Prelude to the Ansariye ambush.
During the 2006 Lebanon War, 3 civilians were killed and 14 wounded by Israeli air strikes as they were trying to flee the war. The killed were between their mid-forties and 70 years of age. No military activity was observed in the area before the attack.Attacks on Fleeing Civilians, HRW
Demographics In 2014 Muslims made up 99.64% of registered voters in Kafra. 98.85% of the voters were Shiite Muslims. https://lub-anan.com/المحافظات/النبطية/بنت-جبيل/كفرا/المذاهب/
References
Bibliography
External links Kefrah in the Palestine Exploration Fund Map of 1878, Map 2: IAA, Wikimedia commons Kafra, Localiban