Israel raised the possibility of transferring the remains of Jews buried in Lebanon to Israel during talks with Beirut, according to a report Monday by the Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.
The report said Israel proposed a civilian exchange deal and, as part of the discussions, raised the historic Jewish presence in Lebanon and the wishes of descendants of Lebanese Jews to move the remains of relatives from Jewish cemeteries in the country to cemeteries in Israel.
Magen Abraham Synagogue in Lebanon, 2021
(Photo: Reuters)
According to Al-Akhbar, “the Israelis referred to a significant number of remains in Jewish cemeteries in Beirut and Sidon.”
Thousands of Jews lived in Lebanon until the 1967 Six-Day War, continuing a Jewish presence in the country that stretched back centuries. At its peak, Lebanon’s Jewish community is estimated to have numbered between 12,000 and 20,000 people.
The community was centered largely in Beirut’s Jewish quarter, Wadi Abu Jamil, but gradually dispersed after the outbreak of Lebanon’s civil war, with many members leaving for other countries.
Moshe Zaafrani, who left Lebanon at age 14, said in a 2024 interview that communities of Lebanese Jewish expatriates could now be found in France, Mexico, New York and Brazil, as well as in Israel, including Bat Yam, Holon and Haifa.
“About 30 members of the community remain in the country, living underground and not identifying publicly as Jews,” Zaafrani said at the time. “There is a community secretary and a synagogue that was renovated after being damaged in the massive Beirut port explosion. It was built in 1926 and still exists, but no prayers are held there. There were once 18 synagogues on ‘Jewish Street,’ but they were destroyed and are of course no longer active.”
The Magen Abraham Synagogue in Beirut, photographed in 2021, remains one of the most prominent surviving landmarks of Lebanon’s once-thriving Jewish community. The Jewish cemetery in Sidon was also reportedly given limited restoration work by Israeli forces that reached the area during the First Lebanon War.
Separately, a Lebanese diplomatic source told Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen overnight that there were no plans for another round of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel next month. The source said that if a new round is held, it would most likely take place after the summer.
According to the report, Israel and the U.S. rejected expanding the pilot zones before progress is achieved in the two previous areas. Both Israel and the U.S., the source said, also demanded that Hezbollah withdraw from the Ali Taher Ridge in the Nabatieh area.
The Lebanese delegation, according to the source, rejected Israel’s claim that all explosions in southern Lebanon were caused by strikes on military infrastructure.