History
Beit Lahia has an ancient hill and nearby lay abandoned village ruins. A mihrab, or mosque alcove indicating the direction of salaah (prayer), is all that remains of an ancient mosque to the west of Beit Lahia dating to the end of the Fatamid period and beginning of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Saladin, and two other mosques dating to the Ottoman period.
On January 4, 2005 seven civilian residents of Beit Lahia, including six members of the same family, were killed, with the incident blamed on an IDF shelling of agricultural area where they were working. On June 9, 2006, eight civilians were killed, while picnicking on the northern Gazan beach in Beit Lahia. The dead included seven members of the Ali Ghaliya family. with evidence eventually pointing to planted Palestinian explosives to repel an Israeli attack. On December 26, 2008, a crude rocket fired by Palestinian militants fell short of its target in Israel, striking a house in Beit Lahia and killing two Palestinian schoolgirls. The town as a frequent target of airstrikes by Israel and a scene of intense battle between in Israel and Hamas. The Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque was hit by Israeli missiles, resulting in thirteen deaths.
Read more about this topic: Beit Lahia
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)