Christians are estimated to make up about a third of Lebanon\u2019s population of roughly 5.5 million people. With 12 Christian sects, the country is home to the largest proportion of Christians of any nation in the Arab world.<\/p>\n
Huddling in a church, hoping for protection<\/p>\n
Christian villagers who stayed behind in southern Lebanon, ignoring Israel\u2019s blanket evacuation warnings for the area, have increasingly hardened into enclaves surrounded by fierce clashes.<\/p>\n
And though villagers in Alma al-Shaab had been uprooted before, in the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, this time around, they were adamant they wouldn\u2019t leave, even as airstrikes came closer and closer.<\/p>\n
The villagers huddled in their church for protection as Israeli warplanes pounded large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon while Israeli troops stepped up a ground invasion and Hezbollah kept firing rockets at Israel.<\/p>\n
In his annual Easter homily, Patriarch Beshara al-Rai of Lebanon\u2019s Maronite Church blamed both Hezbollah and Israel for the suffering wrought by the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe country is going through a critical situation due to Iranian interference through Hezbollah and Israeli aggression,\u201d he said. \u201cOur hearts bleed for the victims of the conflict imposed on Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ghafari\u2019s brother, 70-year-old Sami Ghafari, was among the villagers who sought refuge at the church in Alma al-Shaab.<\/p>\n
But he dashed out briefly on March 8 to tend to his garden, and was killed by an Israeli drone strike. His killing prompted the remaining villagers \u2013 including his brother \u2013 to pack up their belongings.<\/p>\n
The UN peacekeepers in the area \u2013 a force known as UNIFIL that has monitored the region for nearly five decades \u2013 evacuated them to the northern suburbs of Beirut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to stay, but it was always possible that one of us could be targeted or killed at any moment,\u201d Ghafari told The Associated Press from St Anthony\u2019s Church in the northern Beirut suburb of Jdeideh, where the displaced from Alma al-Shaab came to worship on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is tired, and we see that war brings nothing but destruction, death and displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Missing the \u2018smell of home\u2019<\/p>\n
For many Lebanese Christians, it\u2019s a tradition on Holy Saturday \u2013 the day between Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion and death of Jesus, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection according to the Gospels \u2013 to visit the graves of their loved ones.<\/p>\n
This year, displaced Christians could only reflect from afar.<\/p>\n
Nabila Farah, dressed in black for the Saturday church service, was among the last to leave Alma al-Shaab. She still feels heartbroken, a month later.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou miss the smell of home, the lovely traditions and customs, the sounds of the bells of three churches ringing,\u201d she said, reminiscing about her village. \u201cAs much as we experience the Easter atmosphere here, it will never be as it is over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who remain face other challenges.<\/p>\n
Marius Khairallah, a priest in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, where much of the Christian community has hunkered down, says that he and his congregants are staying put \u201cnot out of stubbornness, but out of a sense of mission, to remain alongside their fellow faithful, as witnesses\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA significant number of parishioners have been displaced or are absent,\u201d he said. \u201cYet, churches still open their doors. Prayers are still raised \u2013 even with fewer voices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worries are mounting among Christians in the area as the Lebanese army \u2013 which seeks to stay neutral in the Israel-Hezbollah war \u2013 pulls out from parts of southern Lebanon, leaving them exposed to Israeli forces pushing deeper into the territory.<\/p>\n
St Antony\u2019s main priest, the Reverend Dori Fayyad, used his Good Friday sermon to take solemn note of the war\u2019s widening toll on the southern Lebanese Christians, as the faithful recited prayers in Arabic and Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by Jesus.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, you understand what the cross means, not as an idea, not as a concept, but because you are going through it,\u201d he told the fully packed pews, the crowd so thick that dozens had to stand or crouch on the back stairs.<\/p>\n
Some wiped away tears as Fayyad named one by one the southern churches, illustrated in the cardboard cutouts next to the pulpit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese churches in these villages are not only places of worship,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are silent witnesses to suffering and to faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
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