This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Jish (Arabic: الجش, al-Jiŝ), also known by its Hebrew name of Gush Halab (Hebrew: גּוּשׁ חָלָב, Gūŝ Ḥālāḇ), or by its classical name of Gischala,[2][3] is a local council in Upper Galilee, located on the northeastern slopes of Mount Meron, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) north of Safed, in Israel's Northern District.

[8] Historical sources dating from the 10th-15th centuries describe Jish (Gush Halav) as a village with a strong Jewish presence.

[14] Other scholars believe the name Gush Halav refers to the light color of the local limestone, which contrasts with the dark reddish rock of the neighboring village, Ras al-Ahmar.

The village is mentioned in the Mishnah as Gush Halav, a city "surrounded by walls since the time of Joshua Ben Nun" (m. Arakhin 9:6).

[7] Eleazar b. Simeon, described in the Talmud as a very large man with tremendous physical strength, was a resident of the town.

According to one version of events, he was initially buried in Gush Halav but later reinterred in Meron, next to his father, Shimon bar Yochai.

The second one was discovered at the foot of the hill, close to a spring; one of its columns is inscribed in Aramaic with the name of a particular "Yose son of Tanhum".

[25] According to local tradition, two nearby rock-cut tombs contain the graves of 1st century BCE Jewish sages Shemaiah and Avtalyon.

This may have happened as a result of the Battle of Ain Dara (1711), in which the Qaysis defeated the Yamanis and drove many of them from Mount Lebanon.

[8] Three weeks afterward, contemporaries reported "a large rent in the ground...about a foot wide and fifty feet long."

The fact that the village was built on dip slopes consisting of soft bedrock and soil has made it more vulnerable to landslides.

Some Christians from the nearby town of Kafr Bir'im resettled in Jish,[10][11] where today they are citizens of Israel, but continue to press for their right of return to their former villages.

[51] Elias Chacour, now Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, whose family resettled in Jish, wrote that when he was eight years old he discovered a mass grave containing two dozen bodies.

[52] In December 2010, a hiking and bicycle path known as the Coexistence Trail was inaugurated, linking Jish with Dalton, a neighboring Jewish village.

The 2,500 meter-long trail, accessible to people with disabilities, sits 850 meters above sea level and has several lookout points, including a view of Dalton Lake, where rainwater is collected and stored for agricultural use.

The tombs of Shmaya and Abtalion, a pair of Jewish sages who taught in Jerusalem in the early 1st century BCE, are located in Jish.

[57] On the remains of the upper synagogue, found by Kitchener of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Mar Boutros was built.

On Jish's western slope, a mausoleum was excavated, with stone sarcophagi similar to those seen at the large Jewish catacomb at Beit She'arim National Park.

In the mausoleum, archaeologists found several skeletons, oil lamps and a glass bottle dating to the fourth century CE.

[citation needed] A network of secret caves and passageways in Jish, some of them located under private homes, is strikingly similar to hideaways in the Judean lowlands used during the Bar Kokhba revolt.