As Lebanon plunged into the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, Catholics and other Christians continue their humanitarian outreach to help struggling Lebanese, Syrian refugees and migrant workers displaced by severe Israeli bombardments across the country, ongoing since late September, some of which have also injured Christians.
Catholic aid agencies and the United Nations warn that Lebanon is experiencing a major displacement crisis as some 1.2 million have fled their homes due to fighting between Israel and the country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia.
The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need, Ireland branch, confirmed 10 October that a 9 October Israeli air strike on two church halls housing refugees in Derdghaya killed at least eight people, leaving the parish office and church destroyed.
The exchange of fire from both sides of the border has also displaced 60,000 Israelis. Israel is now carrying out a ground offensive in south and southwest Lebanon.
Hezbollah, once considered Iran’s security bulwark, has been weakened by sustained Israeli bombardments and targeted assassinations of its military leaders, most notably Hassan Nasrallah, its chief since 1992. On the first anniversary of Hezbollah’s involvement in the Israel-Hamas war, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the Lebanese to get rid of Hezbollah and avoid “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”
Large numbers of the displaced are sleeping on the streets of the capital, Beirut, fearful of being trapped in collapsing buildings from the bombings, while others have no place else to go because shelters are packed to capacity. Others, who can, have fled to mountain villages.
“The situation is really catastrophic,” Andrea Avveduto, communications chief for Pro Terra Sancta, said. Pro Terra Sancta, based in Jerusalem and Milan, Italy, supports the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land aiding Christian communities in the Middle East.
“Initially we provided food and basic supplies to people in the south when our centres and convents there had opened their doors to those fleeing for safety,” he told OSV News.
“But with the increase in military activity, people escaped to Beirut and now we are providing more than 300 families with everything: shelter, blankets, beds, food and necessities to live and sleep because they are homeless.”
Lebanon’s health care system, already crippled by years of economic crisis, has been brought to the brink of collapse with this conflict, the UN and government officials say.
“Caritas Lebanon is on the ground offering health, social protection, and has doctors going to the shelters,” Mazen Moussawer told the BBC. The group is part of the worldwide Caritas Internationalis charity network of the Catholic Church.
“We provide medicine and medications that are badly needed right now for people who left their homes with absolutely nothing, but the clothes on their backs.”
Moussawer said more than 1,000 youth volunteers are also aiding women and children suffering from trauma with psycho-social support activities.
“Our medical mobile clinic is going to regions that are far removed for people who cannot leave their houses,” Moussawer said. But he added that the greatest need is providing food for the many homeless. And with winter soon approaching, he said, people need blankets and other supplies as temperatures dip.
“Caritas Lebanon is using everything it has right now. We are spread thin on all levels, but we are here and are standing with the Lebanese people,” Moussawer said.
A catastrophic economic crisis seeing the value of Lebanon’s currency plummet by 90 per cent and failure by its bickering political factions to agree on a president over the past two years have compounded the country’s woes.
“Our political leaders must set aside their differences,” Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said 6 October, to “put aside divergences and work towards electing a president who has both internal and external trust.”
Early after the Gaza war erupted, Cardinal Rai condemned attempts by Hezbollah to link Lebanon’s unresolved land border with Israel to the war in Gaza, fearing Lebanon would be dragged into conflict.
More than 2,100 people have now been killed in Lebanon and about 10,000 wounded since the war started in October 2023, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health. Most of the deaths and injuries took place over the last three weeks, when Israel stepped up its offensive against Hezbollah, it said.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Beirut told OSV News that Father Gregorious Saloum, priest of St George’s Greek Orthodox Parish in south Lebanon, is recovering in a Beirut hospital as a result of serious injuries sustained from an Israeli airstrike. His family members were also reportedly wounded in the attack.