Residents gather in front of the municipal headquarters to protest their anger after the death of the local priest, in Qlayaa, on March 9, 2026. Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP. Residents gather outside the municipality hall to shows their anger for the death of the town?s pastor by an Israeli shell that targeted his home, in the southern Lebanese border town of Al-Qlayaa on March 9, 2026. A south Lebanon parish lost its priest on March 9, when Father Pierre al-Rai of Al-Qlayaa died of wounds sustained from Israeli tank fire, according to state media and a medical source. On Friday, Rai had taken part in a gathering organised by locals in the neighbouring town of Marjayoun, where they said they were determined to remain in their homes despite evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli army to all residents south of the Litani river, about 30 kilometres from the border. (Photo by Rabih DAHER / AFP)
BEIRUT — Two Israeli artillery strikes killed the parish priest of the southern Lebanese village of Qlaya on Monday afternoon and wounded three others, local officials told our regional correspondent.
Father Pierre al-Rai, parish priest of the Christian-majority village in the Marjayoun district, died of his wounds after two Israeli shells struck a house on the eastern edge of the village, our correspondent reported. Three other people were injured and taken to Marjayoun hospital.
The priest was at home when the first shell hit, residents said.
Hanna Daher, head of the Qlaya Municipal Council, said villagers were unable to explain why the area was targeted.
“We do not know why our village was targeted. The reason for the shelling is unclear. Qlaya is a safe area,” he told our correspondent. According to Daher, residents first heard an explosion before noticing smoke rising from a house on the eastern side of the village.
“Everyone rushed to the scene,” he said. “When we arrived, we saw the house had been hit by artillery fire and there were wounded inside.”
As residents tried to evacuate those injured, a second shell exploded in the same house.
“We narrowly escaped a massacre because many people were present,” Daher said. “Several people were injured, including Father Pierre al-Rai, who later died of his wounds.”
He said the first shell wounded the couple who owned the house, while the priest and three other residents were injured by the second strike.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea blamed the incident on the presence of Hezbollah fighters in the area.
“What happened today in Qlaya, on our southern borders, is absolutely unacceptable,” Geagea said in a statement. “Hezbollah elements infiltrated the locality, provoking Israeli strikes that led to destruction and devastation, as well as the death of the parish priest, Pierre al-Rai.”
Geagea said residents had repeatedly called on the Lebanese Army to prevent armed groups from entering their villages. “Yet, so far, the army has not fulfilled this mission, and the tragedy in Qlaya today is the clearest proof of that,” he added, calling on the president, prime minister and defense minister to instruct the army to take the necessary measures to protect civilians.
Earlier, the head of the Qlaya Municipal Council rejected reports that Hezbollah fighters had been present in the house that was struck.
“It is said that there were groups in the house, but that is false. These are lies,” Daher said. “There were only the inhabitants of the house and villagers who came to help the wounded.”
“We are peaceful people and do no harm to anyone. All we want is to be able to stay in our homes in peace,” he added. “We will stay here and we will not leave. We do not know if there is a plan to displace us, but we will remain on our land.”
The priest had taken part on Friday in a gathering outside a church in Marjayoun, where dozens of residents said they were determined to remain in their villages. “When we defend our lands, we do so as pacifists who bear only the weapons of peace,” Rai said at the time.
He also called for Marjayoun to be considered “a red zone,” meaning it should not host internally displaced people from the areas supportive of Hezbollah.
Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil paid tribute to the priest, saying, “He stayed in his village alongside the faithful of his parish, refusing to abandon his land and his church, as did many of our saints who refused to give up their testimony for the truth,” Bassil said. “The words of Father Pierre will remain engraved in our minds and encourage us to continue, as always, to tell the truth, bear witness to what is right and cling to our homeland, Lebanon.”
Hezbollah opened a support front with Iran last Monday, two days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, during which the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, was killed. Hezbollah's salvos of missiles on northern Israel provoked new and very violent airstrikes on several of its strongholds, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, South Lebanon and North Bekaa. This escalation put an end to the November 2024 cease-fire.
The incident comes amid renewed war between Israel and Hezbollah following the U.S.-Israeli offensive on Iran.
Hezbollah missile fire toward northern Israel, in support of Iran and to avenge the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei's assassination, triggered heavy Israeli airstrikes on several of the group’s strongholds, including Beirut’s southern suburbs, south Lebanon and the northern Bekaa Valley, ending the cease-fire that had been in place since November 2024.
