Search
Search

SOUTH LEBANON

French nun taken to Israel and released, returns home

Beatrice Mauger had been established for a dozen years in Qaouzah, where she had built a hermitage.

French nun taken to Israel and released, returns home

Sister Beatrice. (Photo taken from Facebook)

Founder of a hermitage in Qaouzah, a Christian village in Bint Jbeil, Beatrice Mauger returned to France, her native country, after being released on Oct. 17 by Israeli army soldiers who had infiltrated Lebanese territory and taken her to Israel two days earlier. Driven by her desire to contribute to promoting "reconciliation and peace" between communities, this 60-year-old nun settled in south Lebanon a dozen years ago. On the hill of Qaouzah, near the village of Aita al-Shaab, she had built in 2015 the "Ark of Peace," a place dedicated to spirituality. She was helped in her project in particular by the Maronite archbishopric of Sour, owner of the land, and had developed a vast park around the hermitage in which many animals had found their place.

According to a security source contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, Sister Beatrice was taken "by force to the occupied territories," spending her first night in a tent, before being taken to Nahariya, a coastal city in northern Israel. After gathering information on her activities and asking her if she had intelligence on Hezbollah, the Israelis handed her over to the United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL), the source said, adding that the U.N. force then handed her over to the intelligence service of the Lebanese army.

After inquiring about the interrogation she had been subjected to, it appeared to the aforementioned service that Sister Beatrice did not have any security data, the same source said. Army intelligence then contacted "the competent justice system," which asked them to hand her over to the French embassy, ​​also in accordance with the wishes of the person concerned. Without providing details, a source informed of the case told L'Orient-Le Jour that the nun "has returned to France, in principle permanently."

Read also

From the South to Beirut in a minibus: How people who couldn't afford to leave got out

Organization destroyed

Since Oct. 14, two weeks after the start of the Israeli ground offensive in south Lebanon, an Internet user had given news on his Facebook page, announcing that Sister Beatrice had chosen to "stay in her hermitage" in Qaouzah. The Israeli army began to advance on this village, according to the statements published by Hezbollah announcing its operations against Israeli soldiers in Lebanese territory, the day before. Three days later, on the Oct. 16, Hezbollah and local and security sources cited by L'Orient-Le Jour's correspondent reported violent fighting between the Israeli army and fighters from the party in Qaouzah.

On Sunday, in two separate Facebook posts, the nun first announced the destruction of her organization, then the death of a dromedary that lived there, "sacrificed on the front of the Ark of Peace." A photo shows the animal wearing a UNIFIL beret, with a peacekeeper stroking its head.

In 2019, a monkey named Tachtouch escaped from the park and crossed the Lebanese-Israeli border. After several days of tracking, the animal was subdued in Majd al-Kroum, in northern Israel, according to Israeli media. It was handed over to UNIFIL, before being returned to its owner in southern Lebanon. Sister Beatrice told AFP that this monkey “is a messenger of peace.” She added: “He downplayed the border, ignoring the wall and barbed wire of war. Peace to all Tachtouch fans, who helped him cross a hermetic border again, a prophetic sign of the reopening of this border.”

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.

Founder of a hermitage in Qaouzah, a Christian village in Bint Jbeil, Beatrice Mauger returned to France, her native country, after being released on Oct. 17 by Israeli army soldiers who had infiltrated Lebanese territory and taken her to Israel two days earlier. Driven by her desire to contribute to promoting "reconciliation and peace" between communities, this 60-year-old nun settled in south...