Lebanon’s Maronite bishops condemned “the daily attacks on the South and other regions of Lebanon, which are bringing the country to the brink of war once again.”
The bishops issued the statement on 5 November, after their monthly meeting, presided by Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, in Bkerke. The statement also calls on “the parties concerned” in the current peace process in Lebanon to “respect the ceasefire and to continue the implementation of [U.N. Security Council] Resolution 1701, urging them to assume their responsibilities and not to place the burden of the situation on Lebanon, which is the weakest link in the chain of peace demands … in the region.”
Security concerns spiked on 30 October, when Israeli forces carried out a ground incursion in south Lebanon, killing a municipal employee in Blida and prompting President Joseph Aoun to instruct the army to respond to any attempted incursion into Lebanese territory.
Prime Minister Nawaf Salam later stated his government was working “day and night to ensure a complete Israeli withdrawal” from Lebanon, as well as on the disarmament of Hezbollah across the country. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will enforce Lebanon’s ceasefire with “an iron fist.”
“With all the statements we hear coming from all sides, it is impossible not to feel concerned and troubled,” Maronite Archbishop Charbel Abdallah of Tyre told CNEWA’s ONE magazine.
“We do not live in peace nor in psychological security,” said Archbishop Abdallah.
Lebanon and Israel agreed to a ceasefire on 27 November 2024, after three months of all-out war. The agreement requires Lebanon to seize Hezbollah’s weapons in the South and contain the group by the end of 2025. Since then, the United States and Israel have added demands, including direct talks and a new disarmament deadline.
President Aoun accepted negotiations, but Hezbollah openly refused to “abandon” its weapons, saying “the ceasefire agreement exclusively concerns south of the Litani River, and that Israel must withdraw from Lebanon and release the prisoners.”
Since the ceasefire, Israel has conducted near daily airstrikes and drone strikes on south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, as well as occasional bombardments on the southern suburbs of Beirut. On 10 November, the Israeli military conducted 15 air raids across the country.
These strikes have killed 108 civilians between November 2024 and mid-October 2025, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Maronite Bishop Hanna Rahme of Baalbeck and Deir el Ahmar shepherds 80,000 faithful in the Bekaa Valley.
“Many are already living in precarious conditions due to the economic crisis, and any new tension reignites their fears,” he said.
Jesuit Father Jad Chebli, chaplain at St. Joseph University of Beirut, has lived through several wars in Lebanon and had anticipated the fragility of this ceasefire.
He had helped provide shelter, meals, schooling and psychospiritual support for 350 displaced people in Bikfaya, 15 miles from Beirut, during last year’s all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. In December 2024, as families moved back to their homes in the South, he recommended that they leave their bedding behind in Bikfaya “in case they had to return.”
“The people of Lebanon are fragile and vulnerable,” he said. “We cannot disassociate today’s situation from that of the past six years: the pandemic, the economic crisis and the [2020] blast at the Port of Beirut.
“There is a feeling of weariness and a desire to live in peace.”
The war has depleted the church’s financial resources, he said. However, should another generalized bombardment occur, the church would “do it all over again.”
“We will put our trust in Providence, for it has never let us down,” he said.
“Living in peace would be very good,” he added. “But then it will be necessary to help the Lebanese people rebuild, assist them in the reconciliation process and heal their wounds. Otherwise, there will be no sustained stability in the country.”
Bishop Rahme recalled how Christians exercised love of neighbor during the all-out war.
“Many displaced Shiites were housed in Christian homes,” transforming relationships between Shiite Muslims and Maronite Catholics across his eparchy, he said. While the situation was “tiring … it was also very fruitful because it brought people together.”
“I call on everyone to be a peacemaker, starting with their own hearts, families and communities,” said Bishop Rahme, echoing the motto for Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Lebanon at the end of the month: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
“War solves nothing; it destroys, impoverishes and divides,” he said.
Some Lebanese view the papal visit, scheduled from 30 November to 2 December, as a guarantee that all-out war will not break out before then.
Archbishop Abdallah, whose archeparchy includes 14,000 families, said he invites “everyone to gather together and pray fervently” that the pope’s arrival in Lebanon “will be a moment when we reap peace.”