Dozens of packed cars filled the center of Alma al-Shaab on 10 March. Residents who had initially chosen to remain in the southern Lebanon village, despite the Israeli military’s evacuation orders, were waiting for the United Nations evacuation to begin at 9 a.m.
“We were forced to leave,” said Mayor Chadi Sayah the next day. “We learned through the mechanism (the U.S.-French-led ceasefire monitoring system) that the Israelis wanted us to leave.
“No one instructed us to stay or to leave, but we understood that it would be our sole responsibility to remain and we could not secure security guarantees [from Israel],” he added.
More than 80 people departed in a convoy escorted by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), joining more than 800,000 people across Lebanon displaced by a renewed all-out war that began 2 March.
Most of those who left found refuge with relatives in Beirut and its surroundings. Since increased Israeli attacks in 2024, the village’s population has dropped to about 100 residents.
Joe Sayah, 25, was originally among the villagers who decided to stay, despite the Israeli evacuation order on 2 March. The order was issued to 53 villages, many of them in the south, some overlooking the demarcation line with Israel, others inland.
“I drove my mother and grandmother to safety in Kfarshima [11 miles from Beirut], and then I returned to my village,” he said.
That evening, footage of residents ringing the bells of Our Lady of the Nativity Maronite Church went viral on social media, and residents took shelter in the church hall and basement.
For several days, despite security concerns, they were hopeful they could remain in their village. By evening, they would “gather at the church and spend the night there as the shelling often becomes more violent at night,” Joe Sayah said.
The next day, the Israeli military removed Alma al-Shaab from the list of 80 villages ordered to evacuate, only to reissue evacuation orders for all residents south of the Litani River, on 4, 7 and 10 March. By 13 March, the Israeli army expanded the scope of its evacuation notice for Lebanon to include 14 percent of the country.
“The most difficult thing is that we don’t know when we will be back,” said Joe Sayah, now in Beirut. He said he has experienced trouble sleeping ever since he narrowly survived an Israeli helicopter attack on the car in which he was traveling on 7 March.
“We were on our way to meet the UNIFIL, when the car was first hit, shattering all the windows,” he said. “We kept going and they hit us again, then we escaped.”
He said he was disappointed the apostolic nuncio encouraged residents to comply with the evacuation order.
“I wish they had supported us in staying,” he said.
Some Christians who remained in the south have died as victims of the expanding violence.
“On Sunday [8 March], they killed my brother,” said Chorbishop Maroun Ghafari. Sami Ghafari was watering vegetables and plants next to the ruins of his parents’ home when he was struck by Israeli fire. The home had been destroyed by the Israeli military during the 2024 war, Msgr. Ghafari said, but it was how his brother “showed his attachment to the land and the love he had for his village.”
Chorbishop Ghafari held a Divine Liturgy and burial for his brother, despite attacks immediately surrounding the village. “May he rest in peace,” he said. “It is war now, and the innocents pay the price.”
In Qlayaa, another village in the south, the Rev. Pierre al-Rahi, the local Maronite priest, was killed by Israeli artillery as he was helping victims of a bombardment. He had previously said he was “ready to die in [his] home because it is [his] home.” He was “a true shepherd who always stayed beside his people,” Pope Leo XIV said.
“We are determined to go back,” said Chorbishop Ghafari about returning to Alma al-Shaab, “but we need some security guarantees we will not be killed, one by one.”
In Rmeish, one of the largest Christian villages in southern Lebanon, most of its 6,000 residents had not evacuated by the time of publication. On 10 March, the Israeli army had threatened to attack Rmeish if the Muslim Shiites, who had been displaced there from nearby villages, had contact with Hezbollah.
The Rev. Najib al-Amil, the Maronite pastor of St. George Church in Rmeish, said most of his parishioners, along with Syrian migrant workers employed in the local tobacco fields and olive groves, have stayed.
“Two or three families have decided to leave because they need health care and the nearby hospital closed,” he said.
Colette Salem, a schoolteacher and mother of three in Rmeish, was among those who stayed.
“During the day, we hear artillery and bombardment, but we would hear the same sound in many other places across Lebanon, and we know that we are not the target because there is no military presence here,” she said.
After being displaced in 2023, the family fled to Egypt and returned to Lebanon last May. “We have stocked up on medicines and preserves,” she said. “We know what to do because we have lived through such instability several times. We can hold for a month.”