Newscasts - Border fighting alarms Lebanese Christian villages

Piraeus Bank SA

31/03/2024 17:59

Click the following link to watch video: https://share.newscasts.refinitiv.com/link?entryId=1_t9ccz58u&referenceId=tag:reuters.com,2024:newsml_RW184831032024RP1_K15&pageId=Newscasts
Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: As Christians in southern Lebanon celebrate Easter, residents are
angry and fearful they could be caught in the cross-fire of border fighting
between Hezbollah and Israel.They say the conflict, sparked by the Gaza war,
is not of their choosing. Lucy Fielder has more.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3vycmZ0

Video Transcript:

The Lebanese village of El-Qrayeh marks its first Easter since the Gaza War
erupted. As many southern Lebanese Christians say, a confrontation between
Hezbollah and Israel risks dragging them into a conflict they did not choose.
Residents of Christian villages in the south fear their homes could be caught
in the crossfire and their families forced to flee. Some 90,000 people have
been displaced from southern Lebanon, which is predominantly Shi'ite Muslim.
Since the conflict broke out in October. Resident Youmna Tannous.

The situation here is very poor. We are marking Good Friday today, we are all
praying for the situation in the south, for the war, for our God to see his
people and peace prevail because every day we go to sleep to one story and
wake up to another.

Hezbollah began launching rockets from south Lebanese hilltops and villages at
Israel on October 8 in support of its Palestinian ally, Hamas. The day after
the latter's cross-border attack into Israel which triggered the Gaza war. The
mayor in the village of Rmeish right by the Israeli border, told Reuters, a
resident confronted a group of armed men trying to launch rockets at Israel
from within the village a few days ago. Villagers ran church bells to sound
the alarm, and the men moved off. Rmeish wants to stay neutral he said.
Iran-backed Hezbollah denied its fighters had tried to launch rockets from
Rmeish. Joseph Salameh, a local official in the nearby town of Klayaa, says
fighting is making Lebanon's failing economy even worse for local Christians
who fear an Exodus.

Thank God, inside the town, nothing has happened. But the areas around us were
really affected. There have been strikes 500, 600 meters away. Our harvests
have been ruined and were completely destroyed.

Lebanon's top Christian clerics have been sounding the alarm in weekly
sermons. Many have long accused Hezbollah of undermining the state, by
possessing a controversial arsenal that outguns the national army and
monopolizing decisions of war and peace. Local priest Pierre al-Rahi says, we
don't ask for anything other than the establishment of the state, which is the
one that should take decisions of war and peace with outcry mounting. Even
Hezbollah's main Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement has ramped up
criticism, saying its nearly two-decade alliance with Hezbollah has been
shaken