Yesterday, Monday 23 September, the 352nd day of the war against Gaza, Lebanon awoke to bombardment, the object of an unprecedented wave of airstrikes.
Launched at 6 a.m., the airstrikes continued until late in the night. More than 1,300 military and civilian targets were hit throughout the country, with a focus and concentration on the heavily populated Shiite Muslim areas of the south, the northern area of the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Some missiles reached the areas of upper Byblos and Keserwan — historic Mount Lebanon — heavily Christian-populated areas with the presence of a small Shiite minority.
These airstrikes follow the explosion of some 5,000 pagers and walkie-talkie devices on 17 and 18 September that killed at least 37 people and wounded 2,931, according to Lebanese Public Health Minister Firas Abiad. This is in addition to the attack on 19 September on a southern suburb of Beirut that targeted one of the military leaders of Hezbollah and his 16 companions. This attack left another considerable number of civilian casualties and injuries. In an initial assessment, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health counted 31 dead, including three children and seven women, and 68 injured.
Bloody Monday began early, as thousands of bombs rained down at an increasing pace all day; the unrelenting Israeli attack on Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry, killed at least 558 people, including 35 children and wounded at least 1,835 people.
The Israeli army called for those living near homes and buildings where Hezbollah had stockpiled weapons to “leave the area without delay.” Some residents received evacuation orders via text from an unknown local number even as bombing had already begun. This was understood to be as an announcement of indiscriminate strikes creating a massive displacement from the south to safer areas in Saida and Mount Lebanon. Yet, these areas are not safe and may be a target of future airstrikes.
The staff of the Fratelli Association — a partner organization in the coastal village of Rmeileh in the Chouf district — was shocked by the degree of displacement and destruction.
“We were in the streets all night distributing water and food. Many of the families lost a family member, dead or missing,” one of the program members reported, adding that their homes were destroyed, they were troubled, and many were seeking shelter at the beach awaiting the next move.
With voices shaking, staff of the Joint Christian Committee for Social Service in Saida reported that a number of nearby villages were shelled. Although Saida was not hit yet, the people are terrified as the airstrikes are random and they are aware they may be the next target.
Our partners work at the service of those most in need in the border villages in the south. The Sacred Heart Sisters run a school in the village of Ain Ebel enrolling Christian and Muslim students from various villages. The goal of the school is to preserve the Christian presence in the region while offering a sound education to all.
“I am still in one piece,” said Sister Maya Beiano, the director. “Missiles are hitting just next to us; the convent is shaking and glasses are breaking. Just a week ago, and due to the request of the parents, we persisted in opening our doors, registering students though the number decreased by half and not exceeding 500 with now more students leaving.
“Yet we still hold the burden of paying all our teachers’ and staff’s salaries with the limited number of students and unpaid tuition fees.”
During the call, Sister Maya regained her calm and entered the school at the sound of shelling. “As long as there is a child and a mother in the village, I will maintain my mission,” she said. She ended the conversation requesting our prayers.
The same scenario is happening in other border villages. The Antonine Sisters’ mission in the border villages of Rmeich and Debel includes five sisters defying the situation and residing in the villages for the service of the needy. Although the Christian villages are thus far spared from the shelling, people are trapped in their villages. The roads are blocked, and they live every waking minute in terror. The Catholic schools in the south that preserve the Christian presence in the region now face the challenge of families fleeing and seeking shelter in safer areas. Unfortunately, student enrollment for this academic year drastically decreased in both schools.
As a first response to the situation, the Ministry of Education suspended classes in all schools and colleges for at least one day. On the ground, 90 public schools were transformed into shelters or centers and started receiving displaced families. As of now, about 150 shelters are operating, sheltering thousands of displaced persons.
In a phone call with the Reverend Marios Khairallah of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre, he said they are in a state of war; the main entrance to the city has been bombed and demolished. People trying to flee their houses were stuck overnight awaiting the removal of debris. The parishes have been emptied of their inhabitants, who fled their homes yesterday for safer areas in the north, mainly Byblos, Batroun and Beirut. The archeparchy welcomed 250 people of the Muslim faith, who spent the night in miserable conditions due to a lack of mattresses and food.
The Reverend Philipe El Oqla, superior of the Orthodox school in the largely Christian town of Marjayoun in the south, reported bombings in the region as well. He said he was only able to accommodate 20 families providing them with mattresses, bread and canned goods. He said that the needs are enormous and the financial means available are limited, especially as the duration of the war remains unknown.
Since the first wave of displacement in Lebanon’s south began after 7 October 2023, CNEWA-Pontifical Mission has coordinated activities with the Maronite and Melkite Greek Catholic archbishoprics of Tyre, prioritizing food provision to the families who remain in their villages despite the dangerous conditions. In the first round, three distributions were conducted comprising in total 1,954 food packages valued at $40 and 910 food vouchers valued at $50 and reaching 2,864 vulnerable Christian families without any source of income. A second round of emergency food packages, valued at $20, reached an additional 2,511 families.
The situation on the ground remains chaotic and, as the theater is live, any assessment of the emergency needs would be premature. CNEWA-Pontifical Mission’s Beirut team, however, knows there is an urgent need for food, hygiene kits, maternity formula, potable water and medicines. The team remains steadfast in its longstanding commitment to the peoples of Lebanon, which as St. John Paul II first said, “is something more than a country: It is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism for the East as for the West.“
To support CNEWA’s emergency relief efforts in Lebanon click here.