Worshipers pray during Good Friday Mass at St. Anthony Church, which was devoted to expressing solidarity with Christian villagers in southern Lebanon displaced by the war in Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. AP
It was not how the Rev. Maroun Ghafari had envisioned this Holy Week. For years, he had held Easter sermons in his predominantly Christian village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel. This year, he preached from a Beirut suburb beside a cardboard cutout of his church, which remains under attack as Israeli forces invade and bomb the south.
“This year, everyone is tired, and we see that war brings nothing but destruction, death and displacement,” Ghafari told The Associated Press from St. Anthony Church in the northern Beirut suburb of Jdeideh, where the displaced from Alma al-Shaab came to worship.
Since Israel’s latest war on Lebanon began on March 2, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,461 people and injured over 4,430, the vast majority civilians, according to Lebanon’s Public Health Ministry. The war followed nearly a year and a half of near‑daily Israeli attacks in Lebanon that killed more than 500 people despite a ceasefire.
On March 2, Hezbollah fired projectiles at Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by U.S.–Israeli strikes. Israel then intensified its attacks, resulting in thousands more deaths and forcing over one million Lebanese—one in five people across the country—to flee their homes.
Among the displaced are thousands of Christians, uprooted from ancestral villages where communities have survived centuries of conquest and crisis. Some villagers stayed behind in southern Lebanon, ignoring Israeli evacuation warnings. But when Ghafari’s 70-year-old brother, Sami, dashed out to tend his garden, he was killed by an Israeli drone strike, prompting the remaining villagers to evacuate under UNIFIL supervision.
Huddled in churches across Beirut and Tyre, displaced Christians marked Easter with solemnity, recalling their villages and lost homes. Nabila Farah, who left Alma al-Shaab, said: “You miss the smell of home, the lovely traditions and customs, the sounds of the bells of three churches ringing… it will never be as it is over there.”
The Maronite Patriarchate expressed “deep disappointment” over the cancellation of a humanitarian convoy carrying 40 tons of aid to the Christian village of Debel, citing “security reasons.”
Churches remain open for those who stayed behind, even as supplies dwindle and humanitarian access is limited. Rev. Dori Fayyad told worshippers: “Today, you understand what the cross means, not as an idea, not as a concept, but because you are going through it.”
Several Christian villages near the frontier—including Ain Ebel, Rmeich, and Debel—remain trapped under Israeli bombardment as Hezbollah fights to repel invading forces. Residents have refused Israeli orders to evacuate, insisting this is not their war, even as Lebanese army forces withdraw from several border points.
Israel has also threatened to occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River and prevent displaced residents from returning, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying that: “all homes in villages near the border in Lebanon will be demolished… in order to permanently remove threats near the border to northern residents.”
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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