Since 8 October 2023, in the aftermath of the sudden and brutal attack by Hamas on Israel, starting from the Gaza Strip, and the violent reaction of the Israeli state, Lebanon has been involved, despite itself, in this conflict, by Hezbollah ("Party of God"), a Lebanese political party, but also a super-armed Shiite militia that presents itself as the spearhead of the Islamic "axis of resistance" to Israel, which in turn belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Since then Lebanon, already involved for five years in a serious socio-economic, financial, institutional and political crisis, has also been without a Head of State (for two years now) and with a resigning government in charge of current affairs. Currently, it is at the mercy of Hezbollah which, regardless of the state and against the will of the majority of citizens, has unilaterally decided to open the front against Israel as a gesture of solidarity with Gaza and to keep it open until Israel closes the Gaza front. With this front still open, it was inevitable that the situation on the Lebanese front would progressively deteriorate. Lately, in fact, it has seriously worsened and we are now on the threshold of an open and total war, except for a miracle. Targeted assassinations, more intense and extensive bombings, the tragic mockery, by Israel, of the simultaneous explosion of thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies with dead and wounded, means the pot has overflowed.
Since last week, a spiral of reprisals and counter-reprisals has begun that does not seem to stop and that has already caused more than 600 deaths and 2,000 injuries in Lebanon in a few days, as well as 600,000 displaced people, with enormous destruction in the South, on the border with Israel, and the prospect of a ground invasion after scorched earth, exactly like in Gaza. Even the three-week truce, just requested by France, the United States and Arab countries, is, at least for now, completely uncertain, given the obstinacy of the two belligerents.
All this is causing the Lebanese population a lot of fear and strong concern, especially in young people, who once again face an insidious and dangerous future. Families are also experiencing this crisis with a deep sense of bewilderment and unease.
To try to cope with all this, the Salesians are trying to offer them a closeness that tastes of hope and friendship in the style of Don Bosco. During this last year of hidden warfare and precarious situation, they have carried on their various activities trying to do so on a regular basis. Only recently Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) gathering in the Middle East was suspended. It was to take place this September in the house in El Houssoun, Lebanon.
At the present time there is uncertainty: the opening of schools has been postponed, a massive influx of displaced people from the South, almost all Shiites and largely supporters of Hezbollah, in the Christian areas north of Beirut, and the beginning of Israeli bombing also in this area, where Shiite villages are also located. Just yesterday, while the house in El Houssoun, located in the Jbeil-Biblo district and which houses a state, elementary and middle school, welcomed some sixty displaced people on its premises, like other schools in the area, two nearby Shiite villages were targeted by the Israeli air force, with dead and wounded; and other villages live in fear of meeting the same fate.
The regular oratory activities that usually involve hundreds of Christians and Muslims and which, precisely in El Houssoun, were due to begin soon, will now have to wait for the situation to clear up.
The reopening of the "Don Bosco Technique" vocational high school, located in Al Fidar, on the coast in the same district, and the Angels of Peace school for Iraqi Christian refugees, located in Beirut, are also linked to how the situation develops.
In conclusion, it is interesting to note that the Salesian house in El Houssoun has always been particularly involved as a sign of hope in the war events that have affected Lebanon in the last 50 years.
During the civil war (1975-1990), while the flourishing Salesian school in Beirut closed permanently due to forces outside its control, the house in El Houssoun was occupied and transformed into a barracks, but it also became, for years, a safe haven for hundreds of displaced Christians. And during the first war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, it temporarily hosted a hundred displaced people, Muslims and Christians, from villages in the South.
The current arrival of displaced persons, whose number could grow in the coming days, therefore represents the third time that this house, located in the mountains, but not in a populated area, is considered a relatively safe place.
The coming days will indicate the turn of events and will therefore guide Salesian action in the near future: return to a certain normality or continue to live and operate in an emergency situation. A challenge that the spiritual sons of Don Bosco are ready to face.
The Salesian community in Lebanon
