Al-Nabi Yusha'

The village remains lie just south of Highway 899 and a little south of the neighboring police fort.[4] The fort occupies the Naftali Heights overlooking the Hula Valley, where it served as an observation point for the Palestine–Lebanon border and commanded roads serving the Upper Galilee.[2] Its position controlled the Rosh Pina–Metulla highway and an east–west route connecting that road with the mountain settlements, making it important to preventing the Upper Galilee from being cut off.[5]

The name Nabi Yusha, translated as “Prophet Joshua,” is associated with the nearby Shi’ite shrine as well as the former village and police station.[2] The shrine and fort are separate structures: a path from the fort leads to the tomb, which has survived almost intact.[6] The fort is approximately one kilometer north of Moshav Ramat Naftali, while its memorial is reached from Road 899 west of the Koach Junction on Road 90, about 8.5 kilometers south of Kiryat Shmona.[6][7]

One account traces the village’s development to a Muslim shrine built by the al-Ghul family in the late eighteenth century, around which a small Arab settlement gradually developed.[8] The same account places the area under French control at the end of World War I, describes a territorial agreement between France and Britain in 1920, and dates the village’s full incorporation into British administration to 1924.[8]

The Britain–France border demarcation of 1923 placed Nabi Yusha among the Shi’ite villages of Mandatory Palestine.[9] These villages included Malkiya, Kadas, Hunin, Saliha, and Tarbikha.[9] Most of the lands belonging to the wider village group lay south of the international border in Palestine, with a smaller portion in Lebanon; residents maintained close social and economic relations with Shi’ites in French-governed Lebanon.[9] The 1923 boundary subsequently served as the reference for the 1949 Israel–Lebanon armistice line and the United Nations Blue Line.[9]

The British built the Nabi Yusha fortress in 1938 as one of several forts intended to control the northern area.[7] It was a Tegart police fort, commissioned by the British and constructed by Solel Boneh.[2] The building belonged to the network of forts and guard posts established during the Arab Revolt of 1936–1939.[1] Its commanding position covered the principal road to the Upper Galilee and routes to Ramot Naftali and Manara.[2]

When the British withdrew in April 1948, the fortress passed into Arab hands.[7] Arab control of the fort and its road connections cut off Ramat Naftali, Menara, and Misgav Am.[1] Jewish forces subsequently made three attempts to capture the position.[7]

On April 15, a force combining the Golani Brigade’s 11th Battalion and the Palmach’s Third Battalion was sent against the police station.[3] The attackers approached in two armored cars and two armored Egged buses, with irregular forces from nearby Jewish settlements also participating.[2] Fire from defenders entrenched in the building forced a withdrawal, and four Jewish attackers were killed.[3][2] The initial defending force numbered 11, but reinforcements increased it to approximately 100 before the next assault.[3]

The second attack, on April 20, called for a diversion from the south while a smaller force approached from the north, breached the perimeter, and placed explosives against a wall.[3] Barbed-wire obstacles delayed the northern force and exposed it to defensive fire; most of its members were wounded or killed before the battalion withdrew.[3] Twenty-two Jewish soldiers died in this attack.[2] Defenders fired from the fort and threw grenades, while wounded attackers had to be evacuated in daylight down a steep, barren slope under fire.[5]

Nineteen-year-old Yizhar Amrani was one of three machine gunners covering the retreat.[5] After the other machine guns failed, he continued firing until he was shot.[5] Another participant, Isaac Israelovitch, had been born in Kalish in 1923, belonged to Hashomer Hatzair, and arrived in Eretz Israel in 1947 before joining the Palmach.[10] He died in the April 20 attack and was buried in the Nebi Yusha Military Cemetery.[10]

The third operation took place during the night of May 16–17 as part of Operation Yiftah.[2][7] After an Israeli air force bombardment, Palmach soldiers climbed secretly toward the fortress and reached it on the morning of May 17, finding that its defenders had withdrawn to Lebanon.[3][7] A stray shell from Lebanon then struck a room and killed two soldiers.[3]

Control of Nebi Yusha, together with Safad, enabled Jewish forces to command the highway north from Rosh Pina and secure communications with the northern settlements.[11] The captured fort was renamed Metzudat Koach to commemorate the 28 fighters killed in the three assaults.[3] The Hebrew word ko’ach means “strength” and has the numerical value 28 in gematria, giving the name its additional meaning, “Fort of the 28.”[2]

Nabi Yusha belonged to the Shi’ite Arab village community along the northern border.[1][9] Approximately 3,000 Shi’ite residents collectively inhabited the area’s villages in 1932; that figure is not a population count for Nabi Yusha itself.[9] Social and economic ties across the border with Lebanese Shi’ites were close, while the village group’s connections with Israeli Arabs were comparatively loose.[9]

One account gives Nabi Yusha a population of 81 in 1948 and states that most residents fled to refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria.[8] It also gives a figure of more than 500 descendants, without specifying a date for that figure.[8] A separate account gives 70 residents and says they left because of fighting around the neighboring fortress.[4]

The wider group of Shi’ite villages was abandoned during the War of Independence, with residents becoming refugees in Lebanon.[9] Descriptions of that collective departure encompass residents leaving on their own initiative, fear of Israeli forces or of being caught in the fighting, and Israeli military security considerations; they do not establish a separate sequence of departure for Nabi Yusha.[9]

The Palmach’s Third Battalion produced a Passover Haggadah only days after the costly April 20 assault.[3] Its text joined bereavement and loss with themes of heroism and national revival, including the line, “Our flag has reddened greatly, for the battle was heavy.”[3] A passage from David’s lament for Saul and Jonathan—“How are the mighty fallen”—appeared in the same section.[3] The Haggadah also expressed a willingness to sacrifice one’s life for the establishment of the state.[12]

The fortress memorial preserves the biblical lament in the words “How the mighty have fallen,” alongside a plaque listing the fallen and their dates of death.[7] It commemorates 29 fighters killed at or near the fortress, while the name Metzudat Koach recalls the 28 who died in the three assaults.[7]

One account describes the opening of the Reut Museum at Koach Fortress in January 2014 by the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites, commemorating the fallen and Operation Yiftah.[8] It identifies Yehuda Dekel, who helped dig the mass grave as a 19-year-old Palmach fighter, as the later inspiration for the museum project.[8] The account also describes the museum’s display of the first draft of Haim Gouri’s poem “Hareut” (“The Camaraderie”), subsequently set to music by Sasha Argov.[8]

The surviving Nabi Yusha shrine is a domed building overlooking the Hula Valley, revered by Muslims as the tomb of Joshua son of Nun.[4] It stands across from the large fort and forms part of a landscape of Muslim-revered holy sites connected with Jewish history.[13] The identification with Joshua is a religious tradition rather than an established burial identification.[4]

The British-built fort stands 375 meters above sea level and has thick concrete walls, narrow windows, a fortified courtyard, and a six-sided tower.[5] It remains in military use, with the Border Police occupying the building.[7][13] Nearby features include a lookout, a pine grove, seating areas, the memorial, and the Palmach Trail.[7] The shrine can be reached by a path from the fort.[6]

Nabi Yusha has figured in Hezbollah’s claims concerning seven former Shi’ite villages along the Israel–Lebanon border.[14] The dispute involves the villages’ territorial history, the circumstances of their residents’ departure, and their inhabitants’ Lebanese citizenship.[9][15] Competing citizenship claims invoke Lebanese identity papers from 1933, continued Lebanese nationality, and the granting of citizenship in 1994 after decades of appeals.[15]

Hezbollah alleges that Israel destroyed the seven villages and deported or drove out their residents in 1948.[14] The account argues that Lebanon accepted the 1923 demarcation following the 1949 armistice and relinquished its territorial claim, leaving the villages under Israeli sovereignty.[14] These broader political claims concern the village group collectively and do not supply a detailed, village-specific account of Nabi Yusha’s displacement.[9][14]