Between 1984 and 1986, Hezbollah led a campaign of kidnappings and murders targeting Lebanon’s Jewish community. This included the murder of at least seven major figures in the community. Several Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut were also killed when it was attacked on multiple occasions. Ynet reports that the Lebanese government is now searching for the remains of the Jewish victims in exchange for detainees released by Israel last week.
On Aug. 15, 1984, about a month before Hezbollah’s formal establishment, the group abducted Lebanese Jewish leader Salim Murad Jamous, 45, a married father of three and secretary-general of the Lebanese Jewish community.
Three gunmen pulled him from his car near the synagogue and Jewish community center in Beirut’s Wadi Abu Jamil district, historically known as the city’s Jewish quarter. The IDF, which had controlled the area during the 1982 Lebanon War, had withdrawn from it about a year earlier. Jamous’ body was never found. He was officially recognized as having been murdered only about 13 years later.
Lebanon was home to around 9,000 Jews in the 1960s, but many left throughout the decade as living conditions deteriorated. One major abduction occurred in 1971, when Prof. Albert Elia, 69, was taken by Syrian terrorists and killed in Damascus. By the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, only 1,800 Jews remained.
The families of those taken more than 40 years ago are still haunted by these tragedies. The Fellowship and our supporters pray for them during this time and for the remains of their loved ones to finally be found.