Lebanon is the country with the 2nd highest percentage of Christians in the Middle East (after Cyprus), with its Christian population estimated to be about 40%. Of that group, the largest percentage are Maronite Catholics.
Caritas Lebanon on March 3 released a statement about the immediate humanitarian effects on the war there.
More than 32,000 people have been displaced nationwide, 56 villages evacuated, and 221 airstrikes recorded across Baalbek-Hermel, Bekaa, Nabatiyeh, Saida, and Tyre.
Today, Israel commanded those in south Lebanon to evacuate:
“Residents of southern Lebanon, you must head immediately to the north of the Litani River,” Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, wrote on social media. “Any movement south may put your life in danger.”
Caritas Lebanon is trying to get more shelters in place.
The statement of March 3 explained:
Of the 191 shelters opened so far, 114 are already at or beyond capacity. Roads from the south to Beirut remain heavily congested as displacement continues.
Amid this turmoil, Caritas Lebanon declared a state of emergency and activated its Emergency Response Unit. The organisation is coordinating with national authorities, mobilising volunteers, and expanding operations. A total of 325 collective shelters are being prepared. [...] With streets congested by fleeing families, projections indicate that the number of internally displaced persons could exceed one million.
Another charity working to help is Aid to the Church in Need.
In Tyre, Greek Melkite Bishop Georges Iskandar told ACN that Church facilities are already being used as shelters.
“People are exhausted," the bishop said of yet another renewal of war. "They fear for their children and their future; they yearn for a simple and ordinary life: that a child may go to school without fear, that an elderly person may sleep peacefully in his home, that a father and mother may work for their daily bread in dignity.”
