We have receivede news of the consequences in Lebanon of the Israeli-Palestinian war from one of our Lebanese sisters currently in Italy, in daily contact with her people.
In southern Lebanon, the attacks are intensifying day by day, triggering increasingly strong reprisals. The inhabitants feel abandoned and neglected. Between resistance and resilience, they spend their days hoping that this armed conflict will end before it degenerates into a regional war.
The daily lives of the inhabitants of the border area in southern Lebanon are marked by anguish and despondency. Many have left, while a minority have stayed to guard their homes and their land, reduced to smoking ashes. “This new tactic is frightening the inhabitants, who are heading north to save their lives”, says an elderly man. Only 80 people still live in the village of Alma El Chaab. Its pretty houses, dotted around the fields like poppies, lie in the dark. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 30,000 people have already fled the south of the country. “45,000 hectares of land were burnt in a single day”.
The last straw for the villagers is the silence and lack of communication from the current government. One of the village’s religious leaders said: “The villagers are trapped in a conflict that is bigger than they are, and they can only rely on themselves; the government has not sent us any message, has not told us whether we should leave or stay, is not worried about us… No one has asked us how the situation is going”. The parents are worried about their children’s future.
In spite of everything, the local Church is holding out, mass continues to be celebrated on Sundays, the few Catholic schools continue to give classes to the handful of children who have stayed, Christmas was celebrated soberly this year, “we continue to invoke God’s goodness and mercy… Humans only make war. We need a miracle to get out of this tunnel and rediscover the joy of living”.
