Lebanon’s church leaders appeal for quick international action after Israeli warning

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - SIDON — Christian religious leaders from Lebanon’s southern port city of Tyre called on the international community and Lebanese officials on Tuesday to act quickly to prevent Israel from attacking the Christian district of the city, as airstrikes on nearby neighborhoods killed eight people and wounded dozens of others.

The Israeli military has issued an evacuation warning for the port city, including the Christian quarter, which has been spared so far, sparking panic among the thousands of families there.

The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman, Lt Col Avichay Adraee, said in a post on X that Tyre residents must “move north of the Zahrani River”, about 25km away. He accused Hezbollah of operating in the Christian neighbourhood but did not provide any evidence.

The statement by the Christian leaders was from George Iskandar, the metropolitan archbishop of Tyre for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; Elias Kfoury, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Tyre, Sidon and Dependencies; and Charbel Abdullah, the archeparch of the Maronite Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre.

The warning from Israel’s military prompted hundreds of people to flee the Christian district along the Mediterranean coast, while members of the Civil Defense evacuated older people to safer areas, the state-run National News Agency said.

Cars packed with mattresses, luggage and household belongings stretched for kilometers (miles) along Lebanon’s coastal highway, as residents fled Tyre following the latest Israeli warning. Traffic ground to a halt as families crammed whatever they could into vehicles, with carpets protruding from rooftops, and trunks left partially open to accommodate furniture and personal belongings.

“After the warnings in Tyre, we left. We picked up and left,” said Ali Bahar, who was traveling with his wife and three children in a car loaded with possessions.

“Where should we go? There is nowhere to go,” he said. “We will end up in the streets. We are heading to Sidon.”

Nearby, Hussein Darwish sat in the gridlock after packing his vehicle with what he could carry. “We left to be reassured and safe,” he said.

An Israeli airstrike Tuesday in another neighborhood in Tyre killed eight people and wounded 32 others, according to the Health Ministry.

The three Christian leaders called on the international community and Lebanese leaders to “take immediate and serious action to spare the old quarter of Tyre from destruction and human tragedies.”

The Israeli warning to Tyre came after Israel and Iran traded fire following Israel’s targeting of Hezbollah in Beirut on Sunday, triggering heightened tensions in the Middle East and fears that the conflict could spread further.

Over the past few weeks, Israel’s airstrikes have caused wide destruction in Tyre, the fourth-largest city in the country.

Considered one of the oldest metropolizes in the world, Tyre has several archaeological sites, some of them submerged. The city was officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.

“The old city is not merely a residential area,” the clergy said in their statement. “It is the historical and human heart of Tyre, home to thousands of civilians, including families, children, and the elderly.”

They said the old quarter also holds a rich cultural, religious and civilizational heritage dating back centuries. “Any targeting or destruction of this neighborhood would constitute a humanitarian and national catastrophe with irreversible consequences,” they warned.

Kfoury said the ongoing conflict isn’t only a war on Hezbollah. “The war is against all of Lebanon, not just one particular group within Lebanon,” he said.

“They are destroying Lebanon. Period,” Kfoury said about the ongoing Israel-Hezbollah war that broke out on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel two days after the US and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.

He said the fighting should stop because it’s a “destructive war.”

Last week, Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas over the past two weeks, because they were spared from the aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.

After last week’s warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre to try and prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area.