Nabateans The most accepted theory is related to the
Nabateans (), an ancient Arab civilization that inhabited northern Arabia and the southern
Levant. The name of the city is a feminine, a form which would have been used to name cities (e.g.
Alexandria in Egypt). Alternatively, this form of the word may have been in the genitive case as well due to the presence of a definite article. In addition, the feminization may have been used for noun agreement, therefore the city may have been referred to in some variation by its early inhabitants as (), "the village of the Nabateans" or possibly some other toponym using the feminine form. Due to the city's possible origins as a trading outpost (explained below), it could have also been () "the market of the Nabateans", or some other variant which would have gradually been reduced to simply النبطية. It is currently housed in the
Louvre. Guigues also claimed that the tomb in which the arrows were found was reused into the
Hellenistic period. This discovery occurred on a
tell between lower and upper Nabatieh called "el-Ruwisseh" (area of what is now
Ned el-Shqif). In 1875,
Victor Guérin found
Nabatieh et-Tahta to have 1,500
Metuali inhabitants, in addition to 300 Christians; mostly Greek Orthodox, but also some
Maronites.
Late 20th and early 21st centuries During Israel’s first full scale invasion of Lebanon,
Operation Litani, March 1978, most of the population of Nabatieh fled their homes in a bombardment that, according to the
New York Times, left "[h]ardly a house [ ] intact". The 20 March report continues "There are only 25 to 30 families left in the once prosperous farm center of 40,000 inhabitants". Following the
1982 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, in October 1983 an
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) convoy drove into Nabatieh at the height of the
Ashura celebrations. In the ensuing confrontation a jeep was overturned and set on fire. The soldiers responded with rifle fire and grenades and one person was killed and several wounded. This incident, as well as the assassination of Sheikh
Ragheb Harb, is seen as the turning point in the Shia community’s relationship with the occupying Israelis. After Israel’s withdrawal in 1985 Nabatieh was on the edge of the so-called
security zone. On 24 August 1989 an
IAF air strike on
Ain Abu Suwar near Nabatieh killed nine people. Reports stated that the dead were refugees from the
fighting in
Beirut. In early December the same year Nabatieh was shelled for three days by the
South Lebanon Army. Four people were killed and eighteen wounded. On 17 May 1991 two bombs exploded in Nabatieh killing four people including a member of the
South Lebanon Army. A statement from the
Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility. Five months later the area around Nabatieh was subjected to eight days of shelling by the
South Lebanon Army and the
Israeli Army. The bombardment culminated on 1 November with a series of
IAF airstrikes which destroyed two bridges between Nabatieh and Iqlim al Tuffah. The Israeli offensive coincided with the start of the
Madrid Peace Conference. During
Operation Accountability, 25–31 July 1993, Nabatieh was extensively damaged by Israel artillery fire and airstrikes. Fifty-five towns and villages were heavily damaged during the offensive. The IDF shelled Nabatieh again on 21 March 1994; during the bombardment a school was hit killing a twelve year old girl and wounding twenty-two others. Earlier in the day
Hezbollah had killed two Israeli soldiers and three
SLA militiamen. Just over four months later, 4 August, the
Israeli Air Force launched three airstrikes in the Nabatieh area which killed eight civilians and wounded eighteen. On 20 October Israeli shelling killed five civilians in Nabatieh. The day before the SLA had killed two civilians after their patrol hit a land mine. The shelling originated from the
IDF military outpost base, Dabshe, which was situated on a hill overlooking Nabatieh. The following week, 29 October, twenty Hizbollah fighters overran and set fire to the base. A video later broadcast by
al-Manar showing the
Hezbollah flag flying over the
Israeli base caused a sensation. At the time it was estimated that Nabatieh had a population of 60,000. On 14 March 1995 the Lebanese
cabinet held a symbolic session in Nabatieh to mark the 14th anniversary of the
1978 invasion. The meeting called for the implementation of the seventeen year old
United Nations Security Council Resolution 425. Later that year, 8 July, two teenage sisters and their four-year-old brother were killed when the town was hit by anti-personnel shells filled with
steel darts, which are banned by the
Geneva Conventions. It was reported that Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin and Chief of Staff
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak ‘reproved’ the unit involved. Ten rockets were fired into northern Israel. During
Operation Grapes of Wrath by the IDF on 18 April 1996, nine members of one family in Nabatieh were killed in the seventeen day bombardment when their house was destroyed. On the night of 16–17 August 2024, Israeli Air Force jets
attacked a warehouse in Nabatieh, killing at least 11 people and injuring four others. On Sunday 13 October 2024, a number of people were killed as a result of
airstrikes on the town's Ottoman-era market. A remnant of a US-made munition was found at the site of the airstrike on the Ottoman-era market. Due to the fire, the number of injured was not determined. On 16 October 2024, an
Israeli strike targeted the Headquarters of the "Nabatieh City Municipality" during a local council meeting to discuss the humanitarian crisis in place, killing the city's mayor Ahmad Kahil and 15 employees and volunteers, while at least 50 people were wounded. ==Historic structures==