Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,<\/a> and although Israel issued unprecedented evacuation orders for all of southern Lebanon soon after, \u201cthings felt normal,\u201d Najla Farah said.<\/p>\n\u201cWe even had a wedding on Sunday. It just seemed less intense than the last war, until what happened with Father Pierre,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Al-Rahi in his weekly address. He noted the word \u201crahi\u201d means \u201cshepherd\u201d in Arabic, and that Al-Rahi was a \u201ctrue pastor\u201d who had rushed to help wounded parishioners \u201cwithout hesitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMay the blood he shed be a seed of peace for beloved Lebanon,\u201d Leo said. \u201cI am close to all the Lebanese people at this time of grave trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet what solace those words gave to Qlayaa parishioners was tempered by the confusion felt over Al-Rahi\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military\u2019s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said Israeli troops had deployed a drone to \u201ckill a Hezbollah terrorist cell in an a Christian village in south Lebanon,\u201d but did not elaborate on the location.<\/p>\n
Residents said the house, near Qlayaa\u2019s outskirts, was owned by a retired schoolteacher and his wife, who were in the kitchen at the time of the attack. The Lebanese army said that the attacks involved two Merkava tank shells and that there was no Hezbollah presence in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy hit the first time? OK, why hit again?\u201d said Father Antonius Eid-Farah, the vicar of St. George Parish and aide to Al-Rahi.<\/p>\n
Eid-Farah (no relation to Eveline and Najla Farah) echoed what seemed a common sentiment in town, that Al-Rai\u2019s death had only galvanized people\u2019s determination to stay.<\/p>\n
The town\u2019s Christians have confidence in their church, he said. And, besides, if they left Qlayaa, where would they go? <\/p>\n
\u201cTo the streets?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow can they provide for their families?\u201d <\/p>\n
Yet there was also a sense of frustration among many here, underscoring growing anger not only with Hezbollah but also the Lebanese government for failing to defang the group and stop its ability to wage war. When the head of the Lebanese army arrived at the funeral, some in attendance heckled and refused to let the ceremony proceed until he departed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow he comes? Why is he here rather than protecting us from shells and missiles?\u201d said Chawline Maroun, a 23-year-old student whose home in the nearby village of Kfar Kila was destroyed in the fighting. She has since moved in with family in Qlayaa.<\/p>\n
When, she asked, would the Lebanese military actually fight? \u201cWhen the war is over?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Maroun said Qlayaa was not only vulnerable to Israeli attacks, but also had been hit by what appeared to be Hezbollah rockets that had misfired or fallen short of their targets. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe, the Lebanese who don\u2019t want this war, we\u2019re getting hit from both sides here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
With Israel thrusting deeper into Lebanon, fears are mounting that Qlayaa will suffer the same fate as Alma al-Shaab, a Christian village on the border whose remaining residents all evacuated after a villager was killed this week.<\/p>\n
Plans for a buffer zone would see Qlayaa fall under Israeli control \u2014 a repeat of its past, when the village was controlled by the South Lebanon Army, a Christian-led militia Israel armed and funded during Israel\u2019s 18-year occupation. <\/p>\n
Some would welcome that proposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QLAYAA, Lebanon\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The bells rang, their peals obscuring the buzz of the Israeli drone overhead as the casket of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[8058,1760,1584,8057,100,37,8059,5161,93,8056,396,6583,2878,8055,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-15115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-al-rahi","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-death","11":"tag-farah","12":"tag-hezbollah","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-israeli-drone","15":"tag-lebanese-army","16":"tag-lebanon","17":"tag-other","18":"tag-people","19":"tag-qlayaa","20":"tag-south","21":"tag-village","22":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116213290294522281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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