The municipality of Houla calls for documenting the 1948 massacre and maintaining its memory in national and international fora. In a statement taken by Al Akhbar on 2 November 2026, she recalled the death of 90 unarmed civilians. This review is that of the municipal text, published two days earlier for the 78th anniversary of the massacre of 31 October 1948.
The commemoration comes at a time when the locality of the South is experiencing further destruction and the displacement of its inhabitants. The municipality links these trials to the memory transmitted for several generations. It presents the preservation of this history as a right of victims and their descendants.
An appeal to national and humanitarian institutions
According to Al Akhbar, the municipality asks national, legal and humanitarian institutions to document the massacre in Hula. She also wished to preserve the traces of other crimes suffered by the inhabitants. His appeal aims to keep these facts present in national and international forums, in the name of memory, truth and justice.
The press release describes a deep injury in the history of the commune. He recalls that the story of the massacre was transmitted from one generation to another. He refuses that the passage of time erases the victims or reduces their fate to a closed event.
The memory of the village in the midst of destruction
The municipal text taken by Al Akhbar brings the anniversary of the current attacks on Hula’s life. He mentions the deaths, displacement and destruction of homes, institutions, facilities and livelihoods. These elements are presented in the press release as a succession of trials that affect the village and its inhabitants.
The transmission of memory remains linked, in this account, to attachment to the territory. The municipality claims that attempts to erase history cannot cut off the inhabitants from their roots. It also expresses hope for their return and pays tribute to the victims, while calling families to patience and tenacity.
The commemoration thus gives rise to a specific request: to preserve the facts, to make them accessible to the following generations and to bear the memory of the victims beyond the commune. The municipal communiqué is the starting point, in a village whose inhabitants still face the consequences of destruction and displacement.
Sources
Al Akhbar, November 2, 2026, page 16, statement from the municipality of Hula.
Cover credit
View of the village of Houla, Lebanon, August 5, 2018. Photo archive, prior to the destruction mentioned in the article; It does not represent the 1948 massacre. Photo: Süütlaç / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0.Source of photography.CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized photograph without cropping; editorial banners added out of image.
Coverage composition distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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