page_title: Chamaa
section_title: Modern Times
hierarchical_section_title: Chamaa / History / Modern Times
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque for a project by the Italian-led "Joint Task Force Lebanon - Sector West" of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation to rehabilitate the main square in the Southern Lebanese village of Chamaa (also spelled Chama'a, Chama, or Shama). It provides access to the Chamaa Castle and to a shrine which is attributed by local tradition to the prophet Shamoun or Shimon al-Safa, who is said to be Saint Simon the Zealot, Simon Peter, or Simon the Cananite, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus. According to this Shia belief, he was also an ancestor to the 12th and last Shia Imam Mahdi.
context_page_description: Chamaa is a village and municipality in the Tyre District of Lebanon's South Governorate, about 25 kilometres southeast of Tyre and some 99 kilometres south of Beirut.
  It is especially known for its historical castle on a strategic hill overlooking the coastal plain of Tyre and Naqoura.
  The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Sector West headquarters, led by the contingent of the Italian army, are based on a neighbouring hill.
context_section_description: During the 1982 Lebanon War with Israel and the subsequent occupation by Israel the castle of Chamaa apparently became a military base for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Daily Star reported:
  "In order to allow tanks in, they removed its historical main gate, which some say is now the famous gate of the Israeli coastal town of Akka."
  In late 1997, attacks by Amal and Hezbollah guerillas on Israeli forces and units of the collaborationist milita South Lebanon Army (SLA) in Chamaa were reported. Hence, it may be argued that Chamaa Castle - like Beaufort Castle in Southeastern Lebanon - is one of the few medieval castles that still has had strategic importance in modern wars, at least until the Israeli wihdrawal in 2000.
  During Israel's invasion in the July 2006 Lebanon War, 21 civilians from the village of Marwahin, mostly children, were killed just outside of Chamaa in an Israeli Navy strike followed by a helicopter attack on their convoy while they were attempting to evacuate under Israeli orders. UNIFIL medical teams reportedly came under fire during their rescue mission.
  In another assault, the citadel of Chamaa was partly destroyed, including its main tower. While the shrine of Shamoun was rehabilitated with support from the Sheikhdom of Qatar, the renovation of the castle began only in 2014, funded by the Italian government.
  In July 2007, a French UNIFIL soldier was killed near Chamaa when an unexploded ordnance from the 2006 war blew up as he was trying to clear it.
  It is not clear in which year UNIFIL established the Sector West HQ in Chamaa, about 10 kilometres north of the Blue Line. According to Italian military analysts, by 2015 the Italian Armed Forces deployed at their West Sector headquarters Ten. Millevoi in Chamaa a contingent of "approximately 1100 men and women, together with the contingents of other 11 nations for a total military 3500".
  The mayor of Chamaa municipality has been Abdel-Qader Safieddine. Safieddine is also the most common name on the epitaphs of the cemetery next to the mausoleum of Shamoun Al Safa.
caption: Plaque for an Italian project that rehabilitated the main square in order to provide better access to the shrine and the castle
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