Hezbollah Strikes Church in Israel

On Boxing Day, Tuesday 26th December, Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile from Lebanon and struck a Greek Orthodox Church in the Arab Christian village of Iqrit in Northern Israel. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reported that two Israeli Christians were wounded in that first strike, one of whom is in his 80s. When IDF troops arrived to evacuate the wounded, Hezbollah terrorists fired a second missile at the church and managed to wound nine of the soldiers, leaving one of them in a serious condition.

St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Iqrit (photo by Dr Avishai Teicher/Wikimedia Commons).

Soon afterwards, Hezbollah fired another missile at Israel from a position next to a mosque in Lebanon. The launch was captured on video that the IDF shared on X (formerly Twitter) to provide the world with clear evidence of Hezbollah’s violations of international law - not only firing at places of worship but also firing from them. This report by the IDF spokesman on Tuesday:

In continuing their attacks upon Northern Israel, Hezbollah is risking the stability of the whole region for the sake of supporting Hamas. Hezbollah started their attacks shortly after the Hamas attack upon Southern Israel on 7th October and has been increasing them ever since.

The IDF has been responding in a manner aimed at deterring Hezbollah from moving to a full-scale war. But Israel is not prepared to continue that indefinitely. If a diplomatic solution is not found to stop Hezbollah’s repeated violations of UN Security Council resolution 1701, the Israelis say they will take stronger military action to enforce it.