Sayfo; Village of Qelleth

Village of Qelleth

Qalith, a Syriac word means a water jar, was a large village  and its people were all Syriac but few of them joined the Catholic Church and a few others became Protestants. There was a very old church in the village named St. Simon the Canaanite (the Qanawi) and St. Youhana the Daylamite. The villagers, who numbered more than two hundred families lived comfortably and prosperously from the bounty of their lands, vineyards, orchards, and abundant property

The village priests: Fr. Thomas, Fr. Masoud, and Fr. Ibrahim, along with the Syriac notables Iskandar bin Malki Kabrou and others, had been imprisoned in Al-Qusur village for some time, enduring torture. Then, they, along with many of the people of Al-Qusur, were killed by the tyrants in a place called Babeen.

On the third of June, the Kurds clans gathered and surrounded Qalith from all sides. While there were twenty five soldiers there to protect the village, none of these soldiers protected the villagers. At the same time, the village Syriac leaders, Benjamin and his son Shimon were taken into custody and brought to Diyarbakir for trial. After they were released and were returning to their village, soldiers attacked them on the road and killed them. Large number of  Syriac people gathered in Benjamin's house and because of this, the Kurds attacked them and killed many of them until their blood flowed in the house and the surrounding courtyard

The Kurdish attackers committed many crimes against the women and girls of the village, both inside and outside the village. They did not hesitate to assault the dead bodies, they heated iron rods with fire and stabbed with them those who were still breathing or dead alike and if they found a blinking eye or a pulsating body, they attacked with despicable savagery and finished them off. Whoever survived was taken to the city of Tyre, and they forced and compelled the women and girls who did not die to marry them and many died because of their refusal.

At dawn on the second day, the villagers were warned that the soldiers will come to Qalth so the young men and women must not stay in the village, but must go up the mountain with them and take enough provisions with them. Then the villagers heard the sound of rifles, followed by the sounds of woe, wailing, and the shrill wailing of elderly women, who saw seven murdered young men among the orchards. At three o'clock, the soldiers arrived from Tyre. Upon finding no one but elderly men and women, they arrested three women and after assaulting and raping them, they stripped them of their clothes and crucified them naked on three crosses. They also arrested the priests and after torturing them with bitter and painful tortures, they led them to Tyre and put them in prison.