Priest killed in Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon

Israeli shelling has killed a priest from Christian village in southern Lebanon – where local residents are pledging to stay after Israel’s military escalated evacuation calls and attacks in parts of the country.

Father Pierre al-Raai died on Monday after he and several other residents were injured by two separate Israeli attacks on the outskirts of Qlayaa, a village in Marjayoun district, CNN reports, citing Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

The village of Qlayaa had remained largely untouched by Israeli fire, which has killed at least 486 people across Lebanon since March 2, the country’s health ministry said on Monday. Before his death, Al-Raai promised to stay with fellow worshippers in the face of an Israeli evacuation call for everyone living south of Lebanon’s Litani River. The village was not explicitly outlined in the memo, but it lies below the Litani – just north of the border with Israel.

“We have never fled… And we will not flee now, either,” the priest had said in a voice message to local villagers, obtained by CNN on Monday. “I want to reiterate the same invitation: for those who are afraid, the church is open, and we welcome everyone until this crisis passes,” he added.

On Tuesday, the UN’s peacekeeping mission will evacuate civilians from the village of Alma al-Shaab – about 43 kilometers (27 miles) from Qlayaa – according to the mayor, Chadi Sayah, in a sign of the encroaching threat to local Christian communities. A man was killed in an Israeli raid there on Sunday, NNA said.

Last week, Sayah told worshippers, “We’re choosing to stay on our land.” “We want to live in peace,” he said in a Facebook video published on the official Alma al-Shaab parish page on March 4.

The Israeli military said troops operating in southern Lebanon “identified several armed terrorists” in the Qlayaa area and fired toward them to “remove an immediate threat.”

The military added that hits were identified and that there was a report of “additional civilians who entered the area at the time of the shooting” being injured. The incident is under review, the military said.