Nabi Chit

Nabi Chit (also transliterated as Al-Nabi Shayth) is a town in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, near the Syrian-Lebanese border. The Bekaa Valley is Lebanon’s agricultural heartland and has historically been an area of significant Hezbollah influence, distinct from the southern Lebanon border zone and the Dahiyeh suburbs of Beirut.

The Cemetery

The town’s cemetery became internationally significant on March 7, 2026, when Israeli commandos landed via helicopter and excavated the grave of Hussein Shukr, believing it might contain the remains of Ron Arad — an Israeli Air Force navigator captured in 1986 after being shot down over southern Lebanon. The grave was empty. The extraction operation, supported by approximately 40 airstrikes, killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 40 others.

The Shukr Clan

Nabi Chit is home to the Shukr clan, which has documented historical ties to Arad’s captivity. The 2004 Farkash Commission concluded that Arad was guarded by members of the Shukr clan in the Nabi Chit area and may have been buried somewhere in the Bekaa Valley. In December 2025, retired Lebanese General Security officer Ahmad Shukr — brother of a militant involved in Arad’s capture — was abducted from Nabi Chit in a suspected Mossad operation.

March 2026

During the March 2026 Israeli escalation in Lebanon, Nabi Chit was targeted by at least 13 airstrikes on March 6 alone, killing at least 9 people, before the commando raid on the night of March 6-7 brought the total to 41 dead. An evacuation order was issued for the area on March 6, which the IDF later described as creating the “operational opportunity” for the commando raid.

The town sits approximately 80 kilometers from the Israeli border — the deepest point of Israeli ground penetration into Lebanon during the March 2026 campaign.