A Lebanese army soldier stands next to a poster of the village's priest, Father Pierre al-Rahi, during his funeral at the Christian Lebanese border village of Qlayaa on Wednesday.RABIH DAHER/AFP/Getty Images
For years, Pierre al-Rahi, a Maronite Catholic priest from southern Lebanon, was a symbol of national resistance.
During Israel’s wars with Hezbollah, he and his Christian compatriots remained on their land even when Israeli soldiers on search-and-destroy missions ordered residents to flee the combat zones and head north.
In the fall of 2024, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon to root out fighters of the Iranian proxy, Father al-Rahi alerted residents to the imminent danger and told them to stay inside their homes. He did so again last week, refusing to obey Israel’s demands to evacuate his Christian town of Qlayaa as it and nearby villages became targets for Israeli warplanes and ground troops. “We will remain here until death,” he told a TV reporter.
Father al-Rahi was killed Monday, reportedly by an Israeli tank shell. He was 50.
His funeral was held on Wednesday and attracted around 1,500 mourners representing all of Lebanon’s religions, even though fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continued nearby.
Residents of Qlayaa carry Father al-Rahi's coffin during his funeral. The priest has taken on martyr status among many Lebanese, regardless of their political affiliation and religion.RABIH DAHER/AFP/Getty Images
The country went into unofficial mourning as his death reverberated throughout the Christian world. (The Maronite church, like all Eastern Catholic churches, has its own liturgy and some of its priests are married, but it is in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.)
Pope Leo XIV, in his weekly general audience at the Vatican, told Catholics that al-Rahi means “shepherd” in Arabic. “Father Pierre was a true shepherd who always remained beside his people with the love and sacrifice of Jesus the good shepherd,” he said.
In a statement, French charity L’Oeuvre d’Orient said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms these acts of war, which aim to destabilize all of Lebanon and kill innocent civilians. L’Oeuvre d’Orient also denounces the risk of annexation and the disappearance of villages south of the Litani River, particularly historic Christian villages.”
The charity was referring to the river that runs east to west across Lebanon, about 25 kilometres north of the Israeli border. Israel wants to create a buffer zone between the Litani and the border to eliminate Hezbollah activity in the area, though many Lebanese fear that a permanent Israeli occupation of the area is in store.
Israel may be splitting Lebanon in two, Lebanese cabinet minister says
The day before his death, Father al-Rahi told France24 TV: “We are forced to stay despite the danger, when we defend our land, and we do so peacefully. None of us carries weapons. All of us carry peace and goodness and love.”
Israel has not denied that military action in Qlayaa resulted in the death of the priest, though an Israeli army spokesperson, without naming a location, said Israel had “neutralized a cell affiliated with Hezbollah entering a site located in a Christian village in southern Lebanon.”
Various Lebanese news reports said a shell from an Israeli Merkava tank hit a house in Qlayaa on Monday, wounding a husband and wife. When Father al-Rahi and other neighbours rushed to the scene to help them, the tank fired a second shell, gravely injuring the priest, who later died from his wounds. There were no reports of other fatalities in the tank incursion.
Some Lebanese blamed Hezbollah as much as Israel for the death of Father al-Rahi, noting that the militia virtually guaranteed Israeli retaliation after firing rockets into Israel in support of Iran after the Islamic Republic came under attack by the United States and Israel on Feb. 28.
“The priest got caught in the middle of the fire,” Marc Saad, spokesperson for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, told The Globe and Mail. “If Hezbollah guerrillas didn’t infiltrate their town, the priest wouldn’t have been killed. The Lebanese people are fed up with their military presence. It only brings misery.”
Lebanon went into unofficial mourning as Father al-Rahi's death reverberated throughout the Christian world.RABIH DAHER/AFP/Getty Images
Mr. Saad’s version of events is disputed by the mayor of Qlayaa, Hanna Daher. “They say there were fighters in the house, but that’s not true,” he told AsiaNews. “Inside, there were only residents of the house and people from the village who came to help the wounded.”
Father al-Rahi has taken on martyr status among many Lebanese, regardless of their political affiliation and religion.
Ahmad Rida, a Shia Muslim charity worker who was forced to evacuate South Beirut when the suburb came under Israeli attack a few days ago, said he is neither for nor against Hezbollah and blames Israel for the priest’s death. Mr. Rida and his family lived in southern Lebanon until two years ago and knew Father al-Rahi.
“He was humanistic,” he said. “He gave to everybody and was very kind. He never differentiated between any of the sects and gave to all of them, including the Shia.”
Dounia Taouk, the founder of Lebanon’s La Cuisine de Mariam soup kitchen charity and the wife of a Maronite priest who knew Father al-Rahi, said he “was very passionate and a symbol of the resistance against hate and killing. He didn’t have anything against anyone. He just wanted the Lebanese to live on their land.”