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The Israel Defense Forces issued their first evacuation order for downtown Beirut today
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ahead of airstrikes, along with a sweeping new evacuation order across southern Lebanon.
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About 10 percent of Lebanese territory is now under Israeli evacuation notices.
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This latest war has killed nearly 700 Lebanese and displaced some 800,000, including many
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Special correspondent Simona Fultine reports from Beirut.
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In Beirut, a Christian community from Lebanon's south mourns one of their own.
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He was a beautiful soul.
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Samir Aferi was killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday in his village of Al-Mashab.
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He had recently celebrated his 70th birthday.
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He was watering his plants.
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He was watering his plants and he was murdered.
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We can't find an explanation for why we could this happen.
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Just an innocent plan who wanted to stay in his land where he grew up.
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The mayor of Al-Mashab, Shadi Sayeh, says there were no hisbola fighters in the village.
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We thought that there is no reason to bomb us and we're not threatening anyone.
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And you know very well that we are an innocent people and we need to stay in our land.
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Al-Mashab is a Christian majority village, 70 miles south of Beirut, close to Lebanon's
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It was one of the first to be drawn into the conflict in October 2023.
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Back then, hisbola, a Shia paramilitary group, did use its surroundings to fire rockets
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into northern Israel, beginning the day after the Hamas attacks on southern Israel.
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The news hour visited Al-Mashab last summer after a ceasefire went into effect.
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The villagers had raised funds to renovate the church.
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The bakery had reopened.
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Despite regular Israeli ceasefire violations, villagers like Sami hoped they could rebuild
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that life could return to what it once was.
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But after hisbola re-entered the war last week, Israel dramatically escalated its attacks
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On March 4th, Israel warned dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, including Al-Mashab
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Rights groups say these evacuation orders constitute force displacement and are illegal
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under international law.
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At first, the residents refused to comply.
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They gathered in the basement of the church seeking protection.
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The mayor encouraged them to stay.
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Why would we leave our land and our people?
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It's our right to protect our homes.
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Because we believe that maybe in 20-24 they had the executes to the bomb because hisbola
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was over there or whatever.
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But now, in that moment, one year, four months, there is no one.
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Despite that, the idea began striking the village.
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First, they hit a police vehicle.
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We thought it was a message not to move around.
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So on Sunday, they killed Sami.
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I was next to him by 30 meters away.
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They directed him directly.
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No one felt safe after that.
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The Lebanese army had already withdrawn, leaving the 83 remaining residents with no protection.
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Shadi had no choice.
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This is him organizing an evacuation convoy escorted by UN peacekeepers.
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Maybe two wants to stay.
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I go back down, kiss their hands, please leave.
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An old woman, I told her, please leave.
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She told me where to leave.
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There is no place to go.
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Because if you stay, your dad, definitely your dad.
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And so the people of Al-Masha left.
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At the funeral wake, they mourn not just Sami, but also their village.
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Everybody is depressed, everybody is sad, everybody feels like we're never going back again.
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I mean, I lost my home as well, where I grew up for 18 years and I lived there.
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The story of Al-Mashaab illustrates how Christians are being drawn into a conflict that is
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In another border village, a priest was killed on Monday in a double-tap Israeli attack.
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Father Pierre Al-Rahi had also refused to leave.
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The war has deepened sectarian tensions between Christians and Shia Muslims.
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With some worried, it could lead to internal strife reminiscent of the Lebanese civil
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And Beirut, flags of the Lebanese forces, a Christian party, have been put up to demarcate
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The party is a staunch opponent of Hezbollah.
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Well, Hezbollah decided single-handedly to re-enter the war triggered by the events in
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So this is a suicide action by Hezbollah taking the whole country, the whole of Lebanon,
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into a regional conflict, into the unknown.
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Hassan Hasbani blames Hezbollah for bringing Christian villages under Israeli fire.
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In some occasions, Hezbollah has been able to infiltrate some of those villages, endangering
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the people who decided to remain in the villages and not to be part of that conflict.
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This has made some Christian towns reluctant to accept Shia Muslims fleeing war.
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More than 800,000 people, that's 13% of Lebanon's population, have been displaced.
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In Razir, a small town just north of Beirut, only a few dozen families have been assigned
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to the local school.
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None of them wanted to show their faces on camera.
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When the showing started, the children were crying.
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We were forced to leave.
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We couldn't find a place to stay.
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This place was available through the Lebanese army.
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They provide all the services.
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Everyone here has a family member in the army.
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The school's turn shelters in Christian areas are tightly controlled and that is to keep
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tensions at bay and to manage fears that they could become targets for Israeli air strikes.
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Now the officials at this school were reluctant to speak on camera, but they told us that
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the only families sheltering here at the moment are those affiliated with state institutions
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like the Lebanese army and the civil defense.
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The locals in Razir have mixed feelings about taking in the displaced.
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On the one hand, they have empathy towards innocent civilians.
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We are like each other.
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It's not their fault.
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What happened is not their fault.
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But they're also worried that they could bring the war with them.
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It's better for us if we don't take them.
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We need to protect ourselves.
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If Israel wants to kill someone, if they want an Iranian or has below, they will hit
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us like any other area.
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Despite the divisions, there are also calls for unity.
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The solution is for people to wake up to just understand that we're all humans who live
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As Israeli troops launch a fresh ground incursion into the South, all of its inhabitants,
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Christian or Muslim, stand to lose.
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For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Simona Fultine in Lebanon.
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The NewsHour requested comment from the Israel Defense Forces on some of the attacks
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Simona just reported they did not respond.
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Tomorrow evening, we'll have a report from Northern Israel looking at the war's effects