Christian villagers ‘caught’ in crossfire in southern Lebanon during war between Israel and Hezbollah

Lebanese Christian Joseph Jarjour hoped for a peaceful retirement back home in southern Lebanon, but instead found himself caught in the crossfire of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We are stuck,” said the 68-year-old retired teacher in the southern village of Rmeish, about two kilometers from the Israeli border. After nearly a year of cross-border fire, Israel began launching a wave of attacks on Hezbollah strongholds late last month and sent ground troops across the border.

Jarjour’s birthplace is among a handful of Christian villages in southern Lebanon that have been largely spared the worst of the violence but remain trapped between the two sides. “When Israel bombs, it flies over our heads. And if Hezbollah fires back, it will also zoom overhead,” Jarjour told AFP by phone during a rare moment of internet connection.

“We are peaceful, we have no weapons. We have never liked war,” he said. “We want to stay in our homes and we don’t want to take sides.” The violence since September 23 has killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and driven another million from their homes, according to AFP figures based on figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Jarjour said the roads out of Rmeish were unsafe, so it was “very difficult” to escape and drive north to the capital Beirut.

– ‘Hostages’ –

Milad al-Alam, mayor of the village of red-tiled houses surrounded by green hills known for tobacco growing, said most of its 6,000 residents had stayed put. But today, the walls of some houses there have been cracked by the nearby explosions, and fresh vegetables are no longer delivered from outside.

Increasing pressure on the village, hundreds of people, mainly Christians, fleeing nearby areas have sought refuge there. “Life has stopped since October 2023,” Alam said, saying most commercial activities had come to a standstill since Hezbollah started launching rockets across the border into Israel.

Hezbollah and Israel have been enemies for decades and have been exchanging fire since the Iran-backed group opened a front last year in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following the October 7 attack on Israel. “Everyone who had savings has spent them in the past few months,” Alam said.

During the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, most Rmeish villagers also stayed put. Alam said he was able to organize a delivery of humanitarian aid to the village last week under the protection of the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers.

“But we cannot replace the state,” he said, in a country paralyzed by political deadlock on top of the worst financial crisis in history since 2019. Christian-majority villages have been largely spared in the recent Israeli bombings, in in contrast to neighboring areas with a Shia majority. which have been destroyed and stripped of their inhabitants.

In January, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai, the spiritual leader of Lebanon’s largest Christian sect, said villagers along the border had become “hostages” and were “bearing the brunt” of the conflict. Lebanon is home to 18 officially recognized religious denominations and approximately 30 percent of the population is Christian.

– ‘Connected to our country’ –

The Israeli army last week told residents of southern Lebanon to flee their homes after saying it would carry out “limited” raids across the border. But in the village of Qlayaa, about four kilometers from the border, hundreds of families have also remained in their homes, despite shortages of fuel and medicine, and despite the closure of the nearest hospital.

Priest Pierre al-Rai said they had stayed in the village because they were “believers bound to our land.” “We have done our best so that there are no military operations here… no military installations,” he added.

Israel occupied the village from 1982 to 2000, a period when some Lebanese Christians sided with their southern neighbor while others strongly opposed it. In Qlayaa, home to a statue of St. George, few people leave their homes in the morning as the sound of bombing rings overhead.

Pauline Matta, mother of four children aged four to 18, said she cried when she saw the Israeli warning to evacuate. The 40-year-old said she is constantly terrified. “I can no longer tolerate the sound of shelling or Israeli planes breaking the sound barrier. I scream when I hear them,” she told AFP.

But she also can’t imagine leaving, or surviving outside the home on her husband’s modest army salary. ‘They imposed this war on us. We have nothing to do with it. Why should we leave?” she said.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)