The upcoming visit of Pope Leo XIV to Lebanon, scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, comes as a new wave of Israeli bombings have shaken several towns near the southern border.
“We have been experiencing continuous attacks like this for almost two and a half years. But we have never evacuated, we have never left our village,” said Maronite parish priest Father Tony Elias from the border village of Rmeich, a Christian village located just a few meters from Israel.
Rmeich, he explained, is one of the largest Christian villages in southern Lebanon. “We cannot leave, because if we did, there would be no one to rebuild, no one to protect our village,” he said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
The situation in neighboring villages confirms his fears: “The villages to the right and left are completely destroyed. Missiles were launched from there, and they were razed in retaliation.”
Rmeich, on the other hand, only suffered some structural damage during the recent attacks: “Some houses have been hit, projectiles have fallen on cars and roofs… but thank God we managed to protect our village,” he said.
The Lebanese still retain in their collective memory the devastation of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. That conflict, which lasted six weeks, left 1,300 Lebanese and 165 Israelis dead and destroyed entire villages and several neighborhoods of Beirut.
In October of last year, another Israeli siege in Lebanon resulted in hundreds of people crushed under the rubble.
Read more: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/267987/the-pope-is-traveling-to-a-wounded-country-says-lebanese-priest
By Victoria Cardiel | catholicnewsagency
