 |
| Children play outside the “Our Lady of Hope” church, as faithful, some of them displaced from southern Lebanon, attend an Easter Mass, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Beirut, Lebanon, April 5, 2026. Photo by Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters |
By Isabel DeBre, Associated Press
JDEIDEH, Lebanon (AP) — It was not how the Rev. Maroun Ghafari had envisioned this Holy Week — for years, he had held Easter sermons in his predominantly Christian village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel.
This year, he is preaching from a Beirut suburb, beside a cardboard cutout depicting his church in Alma al-Shaab, now caught in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.
Since hostilities erupted last month between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group — in the shadow of the wider, U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — over 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, and more than 1 million have been forced to flee their homes.
Among those displaced from the war-torn south are thousands of Christians. They now find themselves far from their ancestral churches in Lebanon, where Christians have maintained a strong presence through centuries of Byzantine, Arab and Ottoman conquest and plenty of modern-day crises.
Christians are estimated to make up around a third of Lebanon's population of roughly 5.5 million people. With 12 Christian sects, the country is home to the largest proportion of Christians of any nation in the Arab world... READ MORE https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/lebanese-christians-displaced-by-war-mark-easter-far-from-their-homes-and-churches