Israel Accused of Bulldozing Catholic Convent in Lebanon

BEIRUT — A growing outcry from Lebanon’s Catholic leadership is intensifying scrutiny of Israel’s military operations in southern Lebanon after church officials accused Israeli forces of demolishing a historic Catholic convent and school near the border.

The Melkite Greek Catholic bishops of Lebanon issued a rare and sharply worded appeal this week, urging both the Lebanese government and the United Nations to intervene to protect civilian property and religious institutions in areas now under Israeli military control.

At the center of the controversy is the village of Yaroun, where residents and church leaders say an Israeli military bulldozer flattened a convent run by the Basilian Salvatorian Sisters, despite prior evacuations carried out for civilian safety.

Church officials described the destruction as “a wound to the conscience of humanity.”

Witnesses, including local Christian leader Adib Ajaka and Sister Gladys Sabbagh, the superior of the religious order, said the convent and adjoining school had been reduced to rubble.

“The entire complex is gone,” Sister Sabbagh told reporters.

Israel strongly disputed the accusation, saying the site had previously been used by Hezbollah militants to launch rockets toward northern Israel. The Israeli military said troops had damaged only part of the structure and halted operations once its religious affiliation became clear.

The Israel Defense Forces also released photographs that it said showed the building still standing. Local church officials countered that the images depicted neighboring diocesan offices and a clinic — not the destroyed convent itself.

The incident has become a flashpoint in the increasingly fragile aftermath of the April 17 cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which followed weeks of cross-border warfare that left thousands dead and entire villages shattered.

Although Israeli officials say ongoing demolition operations are intended to eliminate Hezbollah infrastructure embedded within civilian areas, residents and religious leaders accuse Israel of systematically preventing displaced communities from returning home.

In southern Lebanon, where Christian and Muslim villages have coexisted for generations along the volatile frontier, fears are growing that the destruction extends beyond military necessity and into the erasure of local heritage.

The controversy has also revived tensions after a separate video circulated online weeks earlier showing an Israeli soldier damaging a Christian statue in another border village — an act condemned even by some Israeli officials.

According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, the latest escalation has killed at least 2,600 people and wounded thousands more since fighting reignited in March.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts led by Washington are reportedly pushing for talks between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even as displaced families remain unable to return to devastated border towns.

For many Lebanese Christians, the destruction in Yaroun has become more than another wartime casualty. It has become a symbol of how quickly sacred ground can vanish in a conflict with no clear end in sight.

(Sources: AP, Times of Israel, Al Jazeera, NPR, Arab News, L’Orient Today)