JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It's Passover this week and Good Friday today, and the Holy Land is at war. In addition to the U.S. and Israel fighting Iran, Israel has also invaded Lebanon, a country that is about a third Christian. Israel has ordered residents out of the country's south, where fighting with Iran-backed militants is heaviest, but some Christians have stayed put and are under siege this Easter. NPR's Lauren Frayer takes us into Southern Lebanon.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in non-English language).
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Holy Week celebrations are muted in a region that's being invaded.
NAIM ROUHAIM: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: Naim Rouhaim is the brother of the parish priest in Jezzine, a mostly Christian town famous for a mountain waterfall.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATERFALL RUSHING)
FRAYER: But there are no tourists coming now, only the displaced.
ROUHAIM: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: "This war," he says...
ROUHAIM: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: ..."Has nothing to do with us Christians," he says. "But we are helping our neighbors." Across Southern Lebanon, many Christians say the same - that Israel is targeting Shiite Muslim Hezbollah fighters, not them. Last month, a bunch of priests got together in Marjayoun just south of here...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: ...And videoed themselves ringing the church bells in defiance, saying, "no, we will not flee. This is our land. We've done nothing wrong." A few days later, one of those priests, Father Pierre Rahi (ph), was killed by an artillery shell, which locals say was Israeli and Israel says was Hezbollah's. The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, born in Beirut, speaks fluent Arabic.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MICHEL ISSA: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: He said in a briefing last month that the U.S. had asked Israel to spare Christian villages. Residents say they even got a pledge from Israel directly in phone calls like this one...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: ...In Hebrew-accented Arabic, which a municipal official recorded and shared with journalists.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Through interpreter) We don't want you to flee, but we will strike anyone in your village that has any contact with Hezbollah.
(Through interpreter) You will face responsibility, and that will be a shame.
FRAYER: Israel's military didn't immediately answer our request to verify whether these calls are indeed from them. Father Maroun Ghafri is another priest who says he got a similar call but only after his brother was killed.
MAROUN GHAFRI: (Through interpreter) I told them, how can you say don't flee when you've already killed my brother? You're shelling my village, damaging houses.
FRAYER: After getting these calls, some Christian villages that had taken in displaced Shiites then asked them to leave and organized convoys to take them northward. Ghafri and his neighbors just all decided to flee. NPR caught up with him in the mountains near Beirut. More than a million people have been displaced. Israeli defense minister Israel Katz says he's doing to southern Lebanon what his military did to Gaza.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ISRAEL KATZ: (Speaking Hebrew).
FRAYER: He explicitly says his plan is to destroy homes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KATZ: (Speaking Hebrew).
FRAYER: So that Hezbollah can't use them, he says. And he has not made a distinction - at least not publicly - between Christian or Muslim ones. Now, this is a region where Lebanon's army has actually been deployed. It was supposed to disarm Hezbollah, according to the terms of the last ceasefire with Israel in 2024. But the Lebanese army is outgunned. Video has gone viral of another priest, Father Najib Amil, standing at the center of his Christian village...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NAJIB AMIL: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: ...Pleading with the Lebanese army to protect them.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AMIL: (Non-English language spoken).
FRAYER: "Either we all die and our village is lost, or we live," he says, "and our village survives."
(CHEERING)
FRAYER: But since he recorded that, Lebanese army tanks have withdrawn...
(SOUNDBITE OF TANK ENGINES)
FRAYER: ...As Israeli ones approach. We reached the same priest, Father Amil, by phone.
AMIL: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: He says his village has food and fuel for only about 20 days. Without the Lebanese army, supply routes are cut off. Residents of another Christian village just north of him tell NPR that Israeli forces have destroyed about a dozen homes in their village already.
AMIL: (Speaking Arabic).
FRAYER: "We're worried our country may get divided," the priest says. "We may no longer be part of Lebanon. We're worried about the future."
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
FRAYER: Christians in Lebanon have a unique Holy Week tradition. Children go door to door, acting out the biblical story of Lazarus, Jesus' friend who also comes back from the dead.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
FRAYER: Children take turns lying on the ground being Lazarus and then rising, resurrected. This year, the reenactment got cut short in this town because of an airstrike nearby. So they just do one last round of Lazarus and hope for a miracle. Lauren Frayer, NPR News in Jezzine, Southern Lebanon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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