The Israeli government sent an "Urgent Warning to Residents of Southern Lebanon" on March 4. It told them they must leave their homes and evacuate the region where they lived.

"Hezbollah's terrorist activities are forcing the Defense Army to act against it with force," said the English translation of the message Israel posted on X in Arabic.

"The Defense Army does not intend to harm you," it said. "For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately."

"Any home used by Hezbollah for military purposes may be subject to targeting," it said. "To the residents of southern Lebanon, you must head immediately north of the Litani River. To ensure your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move north beyond the Litani River."

Four weeks later, the Times of Israel ran a story based on a statement by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz. It carried this headline: "Katz says Israel will demolish Lebanon border villages, create Gaza-style buffer zone."

"At the conclusion of the operation, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will establish a security zone inside Lebanon ... and will maintain security control over the entire area up to the Litani River," said Katz, according to this Times of Israel story.

"He adds," said this story, "that Israel will bar the return of 'more than 600,000 residents of southern Lebanon' to areas south of the Litani River 'until the safety and security of northern Israeli residents is ensured.'"

This Times of Israel story reported that Katz also declared that "'all homes in Lebanese villages near the border will be destroyed — in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza,' in order 'to remove, once and for all, the threats near the border.'"

On March 8, four days after the Israeli government warned residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes and move north of the Litani River, Father Pierre El-Rahi, a Maronite Catholic priest, spoke with members of his community in front of St. George Church in Qlayaa, a Catholic village just north of the Israeli border. He stated, as recorded on video by France24 television, that the people in this Catholic village were unarmed and seeking peace.

"We are forced to stay despite the danger. When we defend our land, we do so peacefully," he said. "None of us carries weapons. We carry only peace, goodness and love."

He was killed the next day.

"The Maronite rite Catholic priest was killed in Qlayaa, Lebanon, on Monday as he sought to assist parishioners whose house had been fired upon by an Israeli tank, according to Lebanese media reports," Vatican News reported. "Fr. El-Rahi rushed to the house in the mountainous area of his parish with several young people when the tank struck the house again, wounding Fr. El-Rahi. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died from his wounds."

Three days after Father El-Rahi's death, Pope Leo XIV spoke at his general audience about what had happened to this courageous priest.

"In Arabic, 'El Raii' means 'the shepherd,'" the pope said. "Father Pierre was a true shepherd, who always stayed beside his people, with the love and sacrifice of Jesus the Good Shepherd. As soon as he heard that some parishioners had been wounded in a bombing, he rushed to help them without hesitation. May the Lord grant that the blood he shed be a seed of peace for beloved Lebanon.

"Dear brothers and sisters, let us continue to pray for peace in Iran and throughout the Middle East, especially for the many civilian victims, including many innocent children. May our prayer be a comfort to those who suffer and a seed of hope for the future."

Two weeks after Father El-Rahi was killed in his Catholic village in southern Lebanon, the Times of Israel published a Reuters story about a statement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. It was headlined: "Smotrich calls for annexation of southern Lebanon."

"Israel should extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani River deep inside the country's south, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says, as Israeli troops bombed bridges and destroyed homes in the area in an escalating military assault against Hezbollah," said this story.

"'I say here definitively ... in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,'" Smotrich said, according to this Times of Israel story.

"The Litani River lies some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the current Israel-Lebanon border," the Times of Israel reported.

There can be no question that Hizballah is an evil, murderous terrorist organization. "Hizballah," says the Director of National Intelligence's Counterterrorism Guide, "has been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombings of the US Embassy in Beirut in April 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983, and the US Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984, as well as the hijacking of TWA 847 in 1985 and the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia in 1996."

Israel has every right — and deserves the support of the United States — in defending itself against this terrorist organization.

But, in doing so, it must avoid harming Lebanese Christians and communities that first encountered the Christian faith in the age of the Apostles.

To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: James Coleman at Unsplash