of bombardment. The relationship between the Druze and Christians has been characterized by harmony and peaceful coexistence, with amicable relations between the two groups prevailing throughout history, with the exception of some periods. The 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus was a civil conflict and later massacre started in Mount Lebanon during Ottoman rule in 1860–1861, fought mainly between the local Druze and Maronite Christians. Following decisive Druze victories and massacres against the Christians, the conflict spilled over into other parts of Ottoman Syria, particularly Damascus, where thousands of Christian residents were killed by Druze and Muslim militiamen. With the connivance of the military authorities and Turkish soldiers, Druze and Muslim paramilitary groups organised pogroms in Damascus which lasted three days (9–11 July). By the war's end, around 20,000 people, mainly Catholic Christians, had been killed in Mount Lebanon and Damascus, and many Christian villages and churches were destroyed. Historian Mikhail Mishaqas' memoir of the massacre is valuable to historians, as it is the only account written by a survivor in Damascus. Melkite Greek Catholic and Maronite Christians suffered negligence from the Ottoman authorities and a naval blockade from France and Britain, resulting in the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) during World War I, which ran in conjunction with the Armenian genocide, the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide. The Mount Lebanon famine caused the highest fatality rate by population during World War I. Around 200,000 people starved to death when the population of Mount Lebanon was estimated to be 400,000 people. The Lebanese diaspora in Egypt funded the shipping of food supplies to Mount Lebanon, sent via the Syrian Island town of Arwad. On 26 May 1916, Lebanese-American writer Khalil Gibran wrote a letter to Mary Haskell that read:"The famine in Mount Lebanon has been planned and instigated by the Turkish government. Already 80,000 have succumbed to starvation and thousands are dying every single day. The same process happened with the Christian Armenians and applied to the Christians in Mount Lebanon." Regional Conflicts During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, a number of Palestinian Greek Orthodox and Melkite communities were ethnically cleansed and driven out of their towns, including al-Bassa, Ramla, Lod, Safed, Kafr Bir'im, Iqrit, Tarbikha, Eilabun and Haifa. Many Christian towns or neighborhoods were ethnically cleansed and destroyed during the period between 1948 and 1953. All the Christian residents of Safed, Beisan, Tiberias were removed, and