Lebanon: Rai Calls for Removing Rocket Launchers Next to Homes

Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai during Sunday mass. (Maronite Patriarchate website)
Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai during Sunday mass. (Maronite Patriarchate website)
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Lebanon: Rai Calls for Removing Rocket Launchers Next to Homes

Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai during Sunday mass. (Maronite Patriarchate website)
Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai during Sunday mass. (Maronite Patriarchate website)

Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai rejected in his Sunday sermon the extension of the Gaza war to southern Lebanon, demanding Hezbollah - without naming it – to remove rocket launchers placed adjacent to homes in southern towns.

"Words cannot be found to condemn the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and its children, women, and elderly in their safe homes, hospitals, mosques, and churches," Al Rai said.

He condemned the silence of the international community. “Israel and the silent international community believe that this war will liquidate the Palestinian cause and end the demand for a two-state solution and the return of refugees to their land, but they are wrong.”

He insisted that “injustice begets injustice, and war brings about war.”

The war “must be stopped, and the Lebanese, their homes, and their livelihoods must be protected, as they have not yet recovered from the ill-fated consequences of the Lebanese war.”

Rai further demanded “the removal of any rocket launcher planted between homes in southern towns, which attract a devastating Israeli response.”

The patriarch also urged all sides to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

He further condemned the "inciting, offensive, unethical and factually incorrect campaign" directed last week towards the Archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land Moussa al-Hage over news circulating about his meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Rai said that al-Hage "did not participate in the visit to the Israeli President due to his engagements elsewhere in the archdiocese."

Last week, al-Hage denied that he had taken part in the annual Christmas greetings ceremony for the bishops of Jerusalem, alongside Herzog.



Israel Strikes a Charity Kitchen and a Tent in Gaza, Killing at Least 9

 Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Strikes a Charity Kitchen and a Tent in Gaza, Killing at Least 9

 Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians walk next to a tent camp for displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in west of Gaza Strip, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP)

At least nine Palestinians were killed Wednesday in two separate Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza, medics said.

One strike hit a group of Palestinians gathered outside a charity providing hot meals in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

At least five people, including a woman and her adult daughter, were killed in the strike, according to the Awda hospital, which received the casualties.

A separate strike on a tent killed a father, mother and their daughter in the town of Zwaeida, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. The hospital said the explosion tore the man's body in half.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.