A Maronite Catholic priest has been killed in southern Lebanon after an Israeli tank fired on a home in the border village of Qlayaa. Father Pierre al-Rahi, also known as Pierre el-Raï, died 9 March after being wounded while rushing to help neighbours injured in the first strike.
Local reports say an Israeli Merkava tank shelled the house twice. The first blast injured a couple inside. When Father al-Rahi and others ran to assist, a second round hit the area, fatally wounding the priest and injuring several civilians.
Just a day earlier, Father al-Rahi had told France24 he would remain with his parishioners despite Israeli evacuation orders. “None of us carries weapons. All of us carry peace and goodness and love,” he said. Church leaders and Catholic charities expressed shock at his death.
The strike comes amid escalating Israeli operations targeting Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, where thousands of civilians have already fled growing violence near the Israeli border.
AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, also reported the death of Sami Ghafari, 70, a Maronite Catholic killed by an Israeli drone while he was in his garden.
He was a brother of Father Maroun Ghafari, parish priest of Our Lady’s Church in Alma Shaab. Pope Leo XIV expressed “profound sorrow for all the victims of the bombings in the Middle East over the last few days.
