While international attention focuses on Gaza and regional tensions with Iran and Hezbollah, Christian communities in southern Lebanon continue to be trapped in a war that has devastated entire villages, forced thousands of families to abandon their homes, and left numerous localities without water, electricity, or healthcare.
This is how priests and nuns interviewed by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana recount it, in a testimony that puts a human face on a crisis that continues to worsen despite the officially in-force ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
Read also: Israel destroys a convent and a Catholic school in southern Lebanon
“Families need money to be able to hold out”
Father Charles, the Melkite parish priest of the town of Yaroun, explained to the Italian media outlet that a large part of the displaced Christian residents are currently scattered among small villages in the south or refugees in the Mount Lebanon region, near Beirut.
The priest described an extremely precarious situation in towns like Ain Ebel, Rmeish, and Debel, where military restrictions, material damage, and the destruction of basic infrastructure continue.
In Debel, for example, residents can only access the area with Israeli authorization, and the town has been left without water or electricity after the destruction of the solar panels that powered the local hydraulic system.
Although humanitarian aid continues to arrive, the parish priest warned that economic needs are already desperate.
“Families have also lost their jobs. Today they need more financial help than boxes of food,” he stated.
Emptied villages and displaced population
According to the priest’s account, many Christian families permanently abandoned their homes after the new bombings recorded since March, when the Israeli offensive in the south of the country intensified again.
Border areas continue to be the scene of military operations and forced evacuations. In some localities, residents have had to abandon entire neighborhoods due to orders issued by the Israeli army due to the proximity of positions linked to Hezbollah.
The result has been a new internal exodus that affects both Christians and Shiite Muslims in the region.
Catholic nuns trapped between the bombings of Beirut
The situation is no better in the southern periphery of Beirut. Sister Therese, a Salvatorian nun, explained that her congregation lives practically under permanent threat due to Israeli attacks on the so-called dahiye, Hezbollah’s historic stronghold.
The nun assured that the evacuation orders issued by the Arab spokesman of the Israeli army are now almost daily in some sectors of the Lebanese capital.
“Our school and our house are continuously threatened,” she lamented.
More than 2,700 dead since the start of the offensive
According to figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health cited by the Italian media outlet, the Israeli offensive has already left 2,727 dead and more than 8,400 wounded throughout the country.
The most disturbing figure for Lebanese authorities is that hundreds of victims have occurred even after the entry into force of the latest ceasefire agreement.
While diplomatic negotiations continue without clear results, Christian communities in southern Lebanon survive amid displacements, destruction, and a growing sense of international abandonment.