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In South Lebanon, a Few Villages Defy Israel’s Evacuation Orders

Residents of the southern Lebanese border town of Marjeyoun gather to listen to their priest in the town's churchyard to assert their intention not to leave their homes as directed by the Israeli military earlier this week on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Residents of the southern Lebanese border town of Marjeyoun gather to listen to their priest in the town's churchyard to assert their intention not to leave their homes as directed by the Israeli military earlier this week on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
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In South Lebanon, a Few Villages Defy Israel’s Evacuation Orders

Residents of the southern Lebanese border town of Marjeyoun gather to listen to their priest in the town's churchyard to assert their intention not to leave their homes as directed by the Israeli military earlier this week on March 6, 2026. (AFP)
Residents of the southern Lebanese border town of Marjeyoun gather to listen to their priest in the town's churchyard to assert their intention not to leave their homes as directed by the Israeli military earlier this week on March 6, 2026. (AFP)

In the basement of a church in Alma al-Shaab, a Lebanese village near the border with Israel, dozens of residents gathered amidst the sound of Israeli bombing, defying the Israeli army's order to flee.

"It is our right to preserve and remain in our land," town mayor Shadi Sayah told AFP over the phone.

"We are pacifists... a danger to no one," he added, as the sound of strikes got closer.

Following the start of a new war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on Monday, the Israeli military warned residents in large swathes of southern Lebanon to flee, causing mass exodus.

The area, surrounded by green hills, saw many of its localities razed in the last war in 2024. It is now nearly free of residents.

Close to the border, Alma al-Shaab is one of several Christian towns and villages in the south which have tried to stay away from the conflict.

Farther east, several hundred inhabitants of the large town of Marjeyoun and the neighboring village of Qlayaa also say they are determined to stay on their land, as they did during the previous war, from October 2023 to November 2024.

Dozens of people gathered in one of Marjeyoun's churches on Friday, with the local priest saying they "will not leave".

"We have only one choice: to remain steadfast."

A Marjeyoun resident, requesting anonymity, told AFP that "we have bread, but my wife also bought flour, in case of a famine".

- 'We love our land' -

Of Alma al-Shaab's 250 residents, 96 have stayed including women, children and elderly people.

"We want to live in peace in our land... we love our land, we grew up here, and we will die here," Fadi Haddad, 43, said.

In 2024, the town's residents fled, contrary to other Christian villages.

Alma al-Shaab then became a "war zone", mayor Sayah said, as it was caught in the crossfire between Hezbollah and Israel.

Now, only the town's residents are there, and "we did not see anyone else go in or out".

The Lebanese military, which had a post in the village, withdrew on Tuesday as Israeli forces started their incursions into the country.

According to a source among the United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the incursions are limited so far as Israeli troops are "entering and leaving".

Sayah said they are "traumatized by what we went through" in the last war

Upon returning after the November 2024 ceasefire, residents saw that more than half of the homes were destroyed.

"That is why we will remain, no matter the outcome," he added.

"Of course I am scared, I am trembling, but what will history remember? That 96 crazy people... were attached to their land."

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Arab World

Lebanese Army Says Soldier Killed in Israeli Attack in Southern Lebanon

A Lebanese army soldier inspects the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted their checkpoint in Aamriyeh, south of the coastal city of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
A Lebanese army soldier inspects the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted their checkpoint in Aamriyeh, south of the coastal city of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
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Lebanese Army Says Soldier Killed in Israeli Attack in Southern Lebanon

A Lebanese army soldier inspects the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted their checkpoint in Aamriyeh, south of the coastal city of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
A Lebanese army soldier inspects the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted their checkpoint in Aamriyeh, south of the coastal city of Tyre, on March 30, 2026. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

The Lebanese army said on Sunday that a soldier had been killed in an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, an Israeli strike hit south Beirut on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported, with a medical source telling AFP it made impact about 100 metres away from a public hospital.

The strike hit Beirut's Jnah neighborhood near Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the largest public medical facility in the country.

Israel's military earlier warned it was carrying out strikes on Beirut.

Arab World

Israeli Fire Kills Four Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

Palestinians inspect a vehicle targeted by an Israeli strike in Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on April 4, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect a vehicle targeted by an Israeli strike in Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on April 4, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Fire Kills Four Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

Palestinians inspect a vehicle targeted by an Israeli strike in Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on April 4, 2026. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect a vehicle targeted by an Israeli strike in Maghazi camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on April 4, 2026. (AFP)

An Israeli airstrike ‌killed four Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, local health authorities said, in the latest violence to overshadow a fragile ceasefire amid a new push by mediators to bolster the agreement.

Medics said the airstrike targeted a group of people in Jaffa Street, near the Darraj neighborhood in Gaza City, killing four people and wounding others.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on ‌the incident.

Palestinian ‌group Hamas and Israel have ‌traded blame ⁠for violations of ⁠the ceasefire agreed last October, which halted two years of full-blown war.

The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fire has killed at least 700 people since the ceasefire began. Israel says four soldiers have been killed by gunmen in Gaza ⁠over the same period.

A Hamas delegation met ‌Egyptian, Qatari and ‌Turkish mediators in Cairo last week to give its initial ‌response to a disarmament proposal presented to the ‌group last month, two Egyptian sources and a Palestinian official said.

The group has told mediators it will not discuss giving up arms without guarantees that Israel ‌will fully quit Gaza as laid out in a disarmament plan from ⁠US President ⁠Donald Trump's "Board of Peace", three sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Hamas' disarmament is a sticking point in talks to implement Trump's plan for the Palestinian enclave and cement the ceasefire.

Hamas' October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's ensuing two-year campaign killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gazan health authorities, and has spread famine, demolished most buildings, and displaced most of the territory's population, in many cases numerous times.

Arab World

Easter in Jerusalem Disrupted by War and Restrictions at Holy Sepulchre

Members of the clergy make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers on Palm Sunday, following restrictions on gatherings in large groups, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Jerusalem's Old City April 5, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of the clergy make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers on Palm Sunday, following restrictions on gatherings in large groups, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Jerusalem's Old City April 5, 2026. (Reuters)
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Easter in Jerusalem Disrupted by War and Restrictions at Holy Sepulchre

Members of the clergy make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers on Palm Sunday, following restrictions on gatherings in large groups, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Jerusalem's Old City April 5, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of the clergy make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for prayers on Palm Sunday, following restrictions on gatherings in large groups, amid the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Jerusalem's Old City April 5, 2026. (Reuters)

In the usually lively alleyways of Jerusalem's Old City, silence reigned on Easter Sunday, with the holiday overshadowed by war and restrictions on access to the Holy Sepulchre, where the faithful commemorate Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

On routes approaching the church, police at checkpoints screened a small number of worshippers allowed near the site.

All shops in the area were closed, heightening the sense of emptiness.

"Happy Easter," said the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, shortly after dawn as he entered the church surrounded by a modest group of clergy, according to AFP journalists at the site.

Outside, a few Catholics and Orthodox Christians tried to reach the church but were kept at a distance by security forces.

"How can you tell me I cannot go to church, it is unacceptable," said one Catholic from Tel Aviv who had attended Easter worship at the site in previous years.

Security has been stepped up in the Old City, located in annexed east Jerusalem and home to sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Israel has also imposed restrictions on large gatherings as a security precaution due to the constant threat of strikes during the ongoing Middle East war.

On Palm Sunday, Cardinal Pizzaballa was prevented by Israeli police from entering the Holy Sepulchre for mass, provoking outrage, before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered he be allowed in.

Since the start of the war on February 28, debris from Iranian missiles or interceptors has fallen in the Old City, including near the Holy Sepulchre, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and in the Jewish Quarter.

Most Palestinian Christians belong to the Orthodox faith, which celebrates Easter on April 12.

But for many other Christians, the curbs on worship have stripped the Easter celebrations of substance.

"It's very hard for all of us because it's our holiday... It's really hard to want to pray but to come here and find nothing. Everything is closed," said Christina Toderas, 44, from Romania.

Like many other worshippers, she had resigned herself to watching the mass at the Holy Sepulchre on television.

Father Bernard Poggi, who was preparing to attend mass in another church near the holy site, said he understood the security measures but added that "it seems to be more and more that there's an unevenness in how the laws are put into practice".

Inside the Holy Sepulchre, the celebrations were being held behind closed doors in front of a very small congregation, far removed from the crowds that usually gather.

Around the Old City, where hymns and processions usually dominate at Easter, only whispers could be heard among the faithful moving discreetly through its passages.