Lebanon

by Fady Noun | GATEWAY TO THE EAST

Five kilometres from the border with Israel, the institute founded under the Ottoman Empire in 1881 for Christian girls is fighting for survival. Fr Youssef Nasr: Catholic schools welcome around 190,000 students, 20% of the total and 30% of private schools. Non-Christians account for 30%, although in some areas the figure exceeds 60%. The economic challenge for survival and post-war ethnic tensions.

by Fady Noun

According to UNHCR, in just under nine months, over 200,000 have chosen to return. Some for the first time since 2011. For the authorities in Beirut, the departures “lighten” the Land of the Cedars from a “substantial demographic burden”. But there is also a counter-exodus: from Alawites fleeing the coast to Christians who dream of leaving after the attack on the church in Damascus.

| 04/09/2025
| LEBANON - SYRIA
by Fady Noun

The fighting is over thanks largely to the intervention of US Secretary of State Rubio. The interim Syrian president has "transferred" responsibility for maintaining security to the Druze. He reiterated his desire to avoid "open war" with Israel. The provisional toll from the fighting stands at 350 dead. For Jumblatt, “Israel has no protégés, only instruments”.

 

| 17/07/2025
| LEBANON – SYRIA – ISRAEL
by Fady Noun

Syrian forces were deployed in Al-Suwayda yesterday while the city was placed under a curfew. Clashes sparked by an isolated incident have left about a hundred people dead, 60 of them Druze. At stake are the province's new phase of "integration" with Ahmed al-Sharaa's Islamist Syria, as well as its relations with Israel. An attack on a church in Tartus was foiled.

| 15/07/2025
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST
by Fady Noun

President Trump's envoy Tom Barrack, of Lebanese origin, is in Beirut seeking an answer to the request for dismantling Hezbollah’s military wing, a process that is closely linked with  consolidating the country's political institutions. Some of the unresolved issues are the departure of Israeli forces, end of attacks, and the release of Lebanese prisoners.

| 08/07/2025
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST
by Fady Noun

The relics arrived on 13 June, the day war broke out between Iran and Israel, and are travelling through a country that is recovering from the war between Hezbollah and the Jewish state. A stop in the tormented south is planned. They are a precious seed according to the nuncio, Archbishop Borgia, and encourage “the faithful to undertake the same path to holiness,” says Lazarist clergyman.

| 03/07/2025
| LEBANON
by Dario Salvi

Trump announced a ceasefire, but promising new attacks, Israel accuses Iran of violating it, a claim Iran rejected. Bishop Nahra describes Israel as a nation still "paralysed" by "permanent war”, vulnerable to rockets. He expressed closeness to Christians in Syria, victims of religious violence. He stressed the need for people "rooted in hope”, while waiting for pilgrims’ return.

| 24/06/2025
| GATEWAY TO THE EAST
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