As the scourge of war spreads across the Middle East, including Lebanon, the ones paying the ultimate price are the innocent men, women and children who want to live in peace, said Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Georges Iskandar of Tyre. Source: OSV News.
Archbishop Iskandar told OSV News on March 2 the region was awakened at midnight “to the sound of intense airstrikes” by Israel in “an abrupt escalation that civilians did not anticipate”.
“What weighs most heavily upon the heart is that those paying the price are simple and peaceful people: families in their homes, children, the sick and the elderly – men and women who have no part in the calculations of greater conflicts and no responsibility for the forces that have brought about this violence,” the Melkite archbishop said.
“In a matter of moments, they found themselves at the centre of a storm they did not choose, armed only with fear and prayer,” he added.
Hours after the United States and Israel launched a February 28 attack on Iran, resulting in the death of Iran’s longtime supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Hezbollah militants fired missiles and drones on an Israeli military outpost in Haifa.
In response, Israel fired missiles on southern Lebanon and issued evacuation notices to dozens of villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, prompting mass displacement.
Archbishop Iskandar confirmed to OSV News that the “rapid Israeli warnings” for residents to evacuate came “within a very short timeframe.”
“It was a painful sight: unarmed civilians fleeing danger, not because they are parties to a conflict, but because the geography in which they live suddenly became a theatre of confrontation,” the archbishop lamented.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Hezbollah’s attack, saying that “launching rockets from southern Lebanon is an irresponsible and suspicious act.”
“It endangers Lebanon’s security and safety and provides Israel with pretexts to continue its aggressions against it,” he posted on X March 2.
The papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need, or ACN, issued a statement on Monday, warning that the escalation of violence across the Middle East could have “catastrophic consequences for Christian communities throughout the region.”
“The Christian presence in the Middle East must not die out,” said Regina Lynch, ACN International’s executive president. “A new spiral of violence could push already fragile communities beyond the point of survival.”
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Lebanese archbishop: Innocents are ‘paying the price’ of Middle East war (By Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News)
