The 7 Occupied Villages of Lebanon (القرى السّبع المحتلّة)

The 7 occupied villages spread, from East to West, across a series of mountainous land in South Lebanon, the eastern-most village being Abel al-Qamh, and the western-most, Tarbikha.

note: I relied on several sources from websites to people to get the info offered in this thread. If anyone noticed anything that could possibly be historically inaccurate pls do let me know. I tried my best to only include facts I was sure of
creds to owners and investigators

The 7 villages, along with approximately another 30 in their outskirts, were occupied and ethnically cleansed by the Zionist entity in 1948, and never returned to Lebanon, but the story of those villages goes further back in time to the 1920's - under the French mandate.

The vast majority of the original citizens of those villages were Shia Muslims, with the exception of Abel al-Qamh where one third of the population was Christian. About 92.8% of the land was owned by the indigenous people. 7.2% was owned by Jews who bought land in 1944-1945.

After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 at the end of WWI, French&English troops entered the Levant&took control over the region of West Asia, dividing the land between them according to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This marked the beginning of the French Mandate over Lebanon.

In September 1920, High Commissioner of the Levant at the time, General Henri Gouraud, declared the establishment of the State of Greater Lebanon after the people's demands for uniting the lands of the Vilayet of Beirut and the Mutasarrifate of Mount Lebanon.

The borders of this state included ~31 villages in the South that were later stripped from Lebanon. Those borders were roughly defined by the Sykes-Picot Agreement and were part of the 'Blue Zone' that was under direct French rule.
2 & 3: Sykes-Picot vs. current southern border

Former citizens of the villages kept their identity cards which were issued by the State of Greater Lebanon. Many also still have documents that prove they payed taxes to the Lebanese government back then.
So why and how did Lebanon lose those lands?

It was revealed that an agency responsible for land seizure and real-estate deals in the area around Lake Hula and its swamps, known as "Al-Wikalah Al-Yahoodiya" (The Jewish Agency), was behind this.

A French company was committed to drying the swamps around L. Hula (probably to convert it to arable land). The Jewish Agency, as a condition to renew the company's contract, stipulated that the French hand over part of the land under their control to the English.
L Hula then&now

By Feb 1922, the French&English reached a final agreement on what the nature of the borders between Lebanon, Palestine, &Syria would look like, which was different from the initial Sykes-Picot demarcation in 1916 -the plan which the State of Greater Lebanon was established under.

The French & English modified the original demarcation of the borders by moving the southern border of Lebanon 2 kilometers to the north. The south-eastern border was also adjusted costing Lebanon more land & those villages were joined to the northern Palestinian district, Safad.

Despite the fact that no rivers flow through the 7 villages, they still hold unique and significant topographic qualities in the Upper Galilee; the slopes of their mountains decline towards Lebanon forming the tributary valleys of the Litani River.
Hunin

The 7 villages are also characterized by the fertility of their lands and vast meadows, where approximately 90% of the total area of these villages is cultivated land.
modern-day occupied Qadas and Abel al-Qamh

The strategic location of those villages was also a significant factor to the owners of the Zionist project. Their mountain peaks overlook Zionist settlements & it was therefore crucial to control them so that they would not remain as threat centers for the settlements.

view of the Zionist misgav am settlement on the land of the village Hunin

The 7 villages are also home to several archaeological sites of great significance. The Crusade fortress of Hunin, the Roman temples of Qadas, and the Roman and Phoenician ruins of Tarbikha also add to the value of those villages.
the fortress of Hunin & Roman ruins of Qadas

What is very notable while reading the history of those lands in specific and the Levant states in general is that the fate of those countries was always juggled in the hands of greedy and bloodthirsty imperialists and colonists.

Borders never meant anything to the citizens of Lebanon and Palestine. Several indigenous people of the 7 villages report that they knew Haifa better than they knew Beirut. Their goods were sold in Palestinian markets & the Palestinian Lira was used alongside the Lebanese one.

The Western tyrannical colonists always sought to divide the people and lands of Bilad-u'sham. The English used the Balfour Declaration for their own benefit and the result was division, loss of land, and an oppressive, genocidal, terrorist occupation, but it won't last for long.