Maronite Church Patriarch Bechara al-Rai. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — The Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai denounced Saturday that Lebanon is "the theater of all armed men," after the military deterioration at the southern border Thursday, when about thirty rockets were fired toward Israel, injuring one person and causing material damage. In response, Israeli forces Friday bombarded southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, claiming to be targeting positions of the Palestinian movement Hamas.
In his homily delivered Holy Saturday, the eve of Catholic Easter, Archbishop Rai denounced "illegal and uncontrolled weapons that lead Lebanon and its people to suffer strikes and wars that they neither chosen nor wanted, as happened yesterday at the southern border."
Quoted by the state-run National News Agency, the head of the Maronite Church deplored the recent tensions with Israel that occur "despite the decisions of the UN Security Council, including Resolution 1701," which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. "Until when will Lebanese territory remain the theater of all armed men?" he denounced.
The escalation of tensions observed in recent days on the Israeli-Lebanese front is unprecedented since 2006. The rocket fire from Lebanon occurred the day after Israeli police attacked worshipers in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, Wednesday, which they claimed were intended to dislodge Palestinians who had barricaded themselves there.
Israel retaliated against the rocket fire and claimed to have hit three "infrastructure'' targets belonging to Hamas in near Rashidiye refugee camp, near Tyre in South Lebanon. These raids began Friday at 4:00 am local time. By Friday morning, the situation was calm in southern Lebanon, and a precarious calm prevailed in the areas hit in the strikes. Israel announced early that evening that it had shot down a drone flown over its territory from Lebanon.
Referring to the stalled political situation in Lebanon, Rai said that Lebanese MPs must "elect a President of the Republic who enjoys confidence inside and outside the country, otherwise their Parliament will remain blocked and unable to legislate. Since last September, eleven electoral sessions have been held, but MPs have not managed to elect a candidate to succeed Michel Aoun, leaving Lebanon without a president.
"They [the deputies] occupy a position emptied of its content, with a state without a full government, ministries and public institutions hindered, a justice system at a standstill and subject to political influence, the disaster of the explosion at the port of Beirut and victims fallen into oblivion," recited the patriarch. The deadly explosion of August 4, 2020 at the port of Beirut killed more than 220 people, injured at least 6,500 and devastated large parts of the capital, while the port blast probe has been stalled for months due to blatant political, judicial and security interference.
Rai also returned to the subject of Syrian refugees in the country. "The presence of 2.3 million displaced Syrians who exhaust the capacity of the state, disrupt social peace and deprive the Lebanese their daily bread. They go to Syria and return through crossing points, legal or not, in a continuous and conspicuous way," he said, insisting that the "international community protects them at the expense of Lebanon for political reasons, whether visible or hidden."