CNEWA launches emergency campaign as war expands into Lebanon

As the Israel-Hamas war expands into Lebanon, an agency of the Holy See has launched an emergency campaign to assist thousands of displaced families in that nation's south.

The Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission announced the campaign Oct. 3, with CNEWA-Pontifical Mission president Msgr. Peter I. Vaccari saying the agency had immediately released $250,000 for bedding, food, drinking water, nursing formula and medicine.

Founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926, CNEWA provides a range of support for, with and through the Eastern churches, including humanitarian relief; the formation and education of clergy, religious and lay catechists; religious education for children; and aid to the marginalized, especially survivors of human trafficking, the elderly and those with special needs.

The Pontifical Mission was founded as the Pontifical Mission for Palestine by Pope Pius XII in 1949 to care for Palestinian refugees and placed under the direction of CNEWA. The mandate of the mission has been extended by several pontiffs to care for all those affected by war and poverty in the Middle East.

In its Oct. 3 announcement, CNEWA said it is "focusing its initial relief efforts on families fleeing the south and seeking shelter in church-run facilities," working with bishops, priests and religious orders such as those in the archeparchies of Tyre; the Good Shepherd Sisters in the Bekaa Valley; the Joint Christian Committee and Little Sisters of Nazareth in Dbayeh, northeast of Beirut; the Salvatorian Fathers and Blessed Sacrament Sisters in the Keserwan district; and the Sisters of Jesus and Mary in Bourj Hammoud.

For the first phase of the relief campaign, the Beirut office of the agency estimates it will need $700,000 -- $560,000 for food packages and hygiene kits for 8,000 families, $90,000 for mattresses and bedding for 2,000 people, and $50,000 for counseling for 500 mothers and their children.

"Lebanon faces a humanitarian disaster," said CNEWA-Pontifical Mission's Michel Constantin, who directs CNEWA's operations for Lebanon, Syria and northern Iraq from Beirut, in the Oct. 3 media release.

In September, the Israel-Hamas war -- launched in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, when militants from the Gaza Strip gunned down more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took over 240 civilians and soldiers hostage -- extended into Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Shia militia Hezbollah is based.

Now, Lebanon is facing a deepening humanitarian crisis as Israel warns residents in southern Lebanon villages to evacuate, and as strikes on Lebanon's capital, Beirut, continue.

On Oct. 4, Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing, which connects Lebanon and Syria, was "very significantly bombed," according to Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon director for the United Nations' World Food Program. Along with cutting off a key route for Lebanese residents seeking to flee to Syria, the damage to the crossing will prevent the delivery of crucially needed relief supplies, said Hollingworth.

The current crisis in Lebanon compounds long-running socioeconomic difficulties for that nation, which has also been home to an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees fleeing their nation's repression and political instability.

CNEWA said in its campaign announcement that "more than a million people in Lebanon … of an estimated total population of 5.8 million people" have been displaced since Sept. 17, and Constantin said in the news release that "many of these families are desperate, sleeping on the streets."

"I've seen them in their pajamas and slippers, and I fear they will fall through the cracks of the promised international relief efforts, which focus their efforts on more formal displacement centers," said Constantin.

CNEWA reported that more than 2,000 have been killed, with some 10,000 missing and scores injured in Lebanon as the strikes have spread from southern Lebanon to Beirut.

The agency also noted that more than 8,000 families living in villages near the Israeli border, many of them Christian, have been ordered to evacuate with only minutes' notice, fleeing "with little more than their clothes on their backs, finding shelter in parochial and government schools and parish compounds."

Previously, Constantin told OSV News that the current conflict is a recurring nightmare.

"For us, this is a déjà vu scenario, because we passed through this scenario in 2006 (during the 34-day Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah), and it was disastrous," he said. "Now, it's even worse, because they are not only attacking the areas where Hezbollah is active. They are also attacking where they suspect even one Hezbollah (member) is hiding or is going to visit. Even if the whole village is a Christian village, and you have one house that is hosting one member of Hezbollah, this could be a reason to bomb the village.

"Before, if you were not in the south of the country, you were safe," said Constantin. "Now, you are at risk everywhere in Lebanon."