Caught between Israel and Hezbollah, the die-hard Christian village of Rmeich | Middle East, the eternal conflict

“The situation is tragic, truly tragic…” Dr Maroun Alam is very worried. He and another doctor are the only ones to have kept their clinic open in the village of Rmeich, a Christian town located a stone’s throw from the dividing line between southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

It is one of the few Christian Lebanese localities located not far from the border, a predominantly Shiite region.

Start of widget. Skip the widget?End of widget. Return to start of widget?

Caught between Israeli bombings and Hezbollah missile fire, most of these villages were emptied of their residents following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli army a few days earlier. But Rmeich seems to be an exception.

Of the approximately 10,000 inhabitants that the village normally has, around 6,000 decided to stay. The others took the road leading north to take refuge with relatives or in a convent, in safer areas.

We don’t close our eyes at night because of the sounds of gunfire and bombingstells Radio-Canada, Dr. Alam, contacted by telephone. The strikes are incessant all around us. I hear them right now.

I’m not exaggerating if I tell you that we lack everything, absolutely everything. […] We have had to evacuate pregnant women, especially those who have to give birth by cesarean section, because we do not have the necessary equipment here. All hospitals in the region have closed their doors.

Since the intensification of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, in retaliation for Hezbollah missile attacks, the Lebanese Ministry of Health has evacuated hospitals in the border area with Israel and recently asked establishments in Beirut to suspend non-urgent surgical operations to accommodate war wounded.

Until a few days ago, residents of Rmeich could count on medical services offered free of charge by the traveling clinic of the Order of Malta, a Catholic religious order based in Rome and active in some 120 countries, including Lebanon. However, this clinic had to close its doors at the start of the Israeli army’s ground operations in the south of the country, during the night from Monday to Tuesday.

The fear of exodus

People feel abandoned, everyone is very pessimisticdeplores Dr. Alam.

Even if I have the means to leave, I will never be able to leave the village and leave the inhabitants to their fate, without access to a doctor. I told you: the situation is tragic.

In recent days, however, the population of Rmeich has grown. On Tuesday, the village welcomed some 800 displaced people fleeing the neighboring Christian village of Aïn Ebel, one of the 25 Lebanese localities targeted this week by an evacuation order from the Israeli army.

On Wednesday, half of these displaced people headed towards Beirut, accompanied by a convoy of Lebanese army vehicles, while around 400 people decided to stay put, in Rmeich, in the hope that the war would end soon. to be able to return home.

Tomorrow it might be our turn. People are worried and constantly live in feartold Radio-Canada the priest of the village of Rmeich, Nagib Amil. They don’t want to abandon the village.

We are caught in the crossfire: on one side, there are Israeli missiles, and on the other, there are rockets [du Hezbollah] which pass over our heads.

We want to remain neutral

This is not the first time that the inhabitants of Rmeich have resisted the temptation of exodus in the face of war. This was particularly the case in July 2006, during the last Israeli war in Lebanon, which left 1,200 dead and 4,000 injured in 33 days on the Lebanese side.

We are pacifist people, there are no armed fighters among us, assures Father Amil. We want to remain neutral, we do not want to be drawn into this conflict.

Village residents also regularly stand up to Hezbollah.

Last March, a fight broke out between residents of Rmeich and armed men, suspected of being members of Hezbollah, who were trying to install a missile launch pad near the village, not far from homes. The Shiite movement, however, denied these reports, saying it does not fire missiles from residential areas.

An attachment to the earth and roots

Asked why residents prefer to stay at home, near the war zone, rather than seek shelter in a safer region, Father Amil assures that the residents of the village are very attached to their land. Even those who live and work in Beirut came to the village every weekend before the conflict started because it is good to live here.

And then where will we go if we have to leave? Are we supposed to take refuge under the stairs in a corner somewhere in Beirut? […] We are at home here.

The priest indicates, however, that most of those who have chosen to leave the village to settle with relatives far from the border need medical treatments, including people with cancer or chronic illnesses.

No electricity, no drinking water, no Internet

Those who remain are deprived of several basic services, including electricity and access to drinking water.

And there, for several days, we have been deprived of the Internetsaid Gabriel Hajj, a teacher from Rmeich who has been organizing aid in the village since hostilities began on the border between Hezbollah and Israel about a year ago.

Hezbollah opened a front against the Israeli army on October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ unprecedented attack against the Hebrew state, with the stated aim of sustain the Gaza strip.

There is no longer even milk for infants in Rmeichfurther deplores Mr. Hajj, who calls for an intervention by the Lebanese army to protect citizens.

Lebanese troops have so far stayed away from the conflict which mainly pits Hezbollah fighters against Israeli soldiers, but on Thursday, the Lebanese army for the first time responded to an Israeli attack against one of its centers in Bint Jbeil, a village located about 8 kilometers from Rmeich.

Under-equipped, the Lebanese army is deployed in a few border posts in the south, but these are the approximately 10,000 peacekeepers of the peacekeeping mission of theHIMUNIFIL, which patrol the border with Israel.

We want a greater presence of the army in our village to feel safe, because we are in dangerdit M. Hajj.

We are surrounded like on an island. We are afraid of dying, but we are unable to leave our homes, especially since the road to Beirut is dangerous due to Israeli bombing.

Fields burned

Even agricultural land was not spared by the strikes, deplores Father Amil.

We are unable to harvest our olives for the second season in a row due to violence because our fields are right next to the border with Israel, he explains.

A large part of our fields were burnedhe adds, due in particular to the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces, but also incendiary bombs.

They burn trees to prevent fighters from hidinghe said again.

According to Human Rights Watchthe Israeli army has used white phosphorus munitions, a weapon prohibited by international law, in more than 17 municipalities in South Lebanon since October 2023.

White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed by artillery shells, bombs or rockets, and ignites when exposed to oxygen, says theONG for the defense of human rights in a report. Its incendiary effects can cause death or serious injury resulting in lifelong suffering.

In the meantime, Dr. Alam is not ready to close the doors of his clinic and says he is treating the residents of Rmeich almost free.

After a year of war, no one has a penny in the village anymore, he says on the line. We are doing our best to treat as many people as possible with the means at hand, which are still limited.

So all we can do is pray to God that the war ends as quickly as possible, and until then we live from day to day. We have no choice.