Lebanon: Franciscans Flee Israeli Bombs
The Franciscan monastery of Tyre had welcomed families fleeing the destruction caused by Israeli bombs.
But now, the inhabitants of the Muslim quarter where the convent is located, have all fled.
"I said to my brethren: We are not here to be heroes, nor to guard the stones. If we are no longer needed, if everyone has left, let us leave. We will be more useful in Beirut," he told Tempi.it.
Father Toufic took only "what was necessary", the relics and the Blessed Sacrament, and left for the capital.
During the night, the Christian village of Deir Mimas, near the border with the Tel Aviv regime, where Father Toufic is the parish priest, was heavily hit by Israeli raids. The inhabitants were forced to flee.
They split up into many cars. The road to Beirut was also bombed.
At the age of five, Rev. Father Toufic has already experienced the Lebanese civil war of the 1990s: "I could hear the cries of the children, the shots and the people dying".
"These are memories that I have carried with me since I was a child, and unfortunately it takes a lot to erase them from my memory."
Today, 90% of the population of southern Lebanon lives in absolute poverty.
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