Christian leaders in Lebanese city of Tyre call for quick international
action after Israeli warning
[June 10, 2026]
By MALAK HARB and BASSEM MROUE
SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Christian religious leaders from Lebanon’s
southern port city of Tyre on Tuesday called on the international
community and Lebanese officials to act quickly to prevent Israel from
attacking the city's Christian district. Airstrikes on nearby
neighborhoods killed eight people and wounded dozens of others,
officials said.
The Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the port city,
including the Christian quarter, which has been spared so far.
The statement by the Christian leaders was from George Iskandar, the
metropolitan archbishop of Tyre for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church;
Elias Kfoury, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Tyre, Sidon and
Dependencies; and Charbel Abdullah, the archeparch of the Maronite
Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre.
Israeli warning leads to evacuations
The warning from Israel's military prompted hundreds of people to flee
the Christian district along the Mediterranean coast, while members of
the Civil Defense evacuated older people to safer areas, the state-run
National News Agency said.
Cars packed with mattresses, luggage and household belongings stretched
for kilometers (miles) along Lebanon’s coastal highway, as residents
fled Tyre following the latest Israeli warning. Traffic ground to a halt
as families crammed whatever they could into vehicles, with carpets
protruding from rooftops, and trunks left partially open to accommodate
furniture and personal belongings.
“After the warnings in Tyre, we left. We picked up and left,” said Ali
Bahar, who was traveling with his wife and three children in a car
loaded with possessions.
“Where should we go? There is nowhere to go,” he said. “We will end up
in the streets. We are heading to Sidon.”
Nearby, Hussein Darwish sat in the gridlock after packing his vehicle
with what he could carry. “We left to be reassured and safe,” he said.
An Israeli airstrike Tuesday in another neighborhood in Tyre killed
eight people and wounded 32 others, according to the Health Ministry.
The three Christian leaders called on the international community and
Lebanese leaders to “take immediate and serious action to spare the old
quarter of Tyre from destruction and human tragedies.”
The Israeli warning to Tyre came after Israel and Iran traded fire
following Israel's targeting of Hezbollah in Beirut on Sunday,
triggering heightened tensions in the Middle East and fears that the
conflict could spread further.
Over the past few weeks, Israel’s airstrikes have caused wide
destruction in Tyre, the fourth-largest city in the country.
Tyre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Considered one of the oldest metropolises in the world, Tyre has several
archaeological sites, some of them submerged. The city was officially
declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.
“The old city is not merely a residential area,” the clergy said in
their statement. “It is the historical and human heart of Tyre, home to
thousands of civilians, including families, children, and the elderly.”
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People swim on a public beach as smoke, background, rises from an
Israeli airstrike that hit the Qlaileh village, seen from the
southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP
Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
They said the old quarter also holds a rich cultural, religious and
civilizational heritage dating back centuries. “Any targeting or
destruction of this neighborhood would constitute a humanitarian and
national catastrophe with irreversible consequences,” they warned.
Kfoury said the ongoing conflict isn't only a war on Hezbollah. “The
war is against all of Lebanon, not just one particular group within
Lebanon,” he said.
“They are destroying Lebanon. Period,” Kfoury said about the ongoing
Israel-Hezbollah war that broke out on March 2, when Hezbollah fired
rockets at northern Israel two days after the U.S. and Israel began
attacking Iran on Feb. 28.
He said the fighting should stop because it's a “destructive war.”
Last week, Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that
Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled
to those areas over the past two weeks, because they were spared
from the aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.
After last week’s warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the
Christian district of Tyre to try and prevent Israeli attacks there
and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson,
Avichay Adraee, posted on X that as the military warned days ago
that Hezbollah members were working inside the Christian district,
the Israeli military “will have to act against their terrorist
activities in the neighborhood soon.”
Adraee said that any building used by Hezbollah for military
purposes “may be subject to targeting.”
Israeli security chief proposes arresting Hezbollah family
members
Later on Tuesday, Israeli media outlets, including The Jerusalem
Post, quoted Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar
Ben-Gvir as proposing the arrest of family members of Hezbollah
fighters. Ben-Gvir told members of Israel's parliament that the
arrest of women and youth would hurt Hezbollah members the most.
Ben-Gvir's office confirmed when contacted by The Associated Press
that he made the comments in a closed security discussion that
leaked but declined further comment saying the office does not
comment on internal discussions.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon has killed around 3,500
people and displaced more than 1.2 million.
___
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Koral Saeed
contributed to this report from Herzliya, Israel.
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