Photos show Lebanon's Catholics marking Palm Sunday as the shadow of war weighs heavily

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

As Christians packed churches across Lebanon this Palm Sunday to commemorate their belief in Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the renewed war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah weighed on parishioners.

Still, it was standing-room-only at a Maronite Catholic church near Dahiyeh, in Beirut's southern suburbs, a once-densely populated Shiite district where Hezbollah has long held sway — now emptied by sweeping Israeli evacuation orders and constant airstrikes. In the coastal city of Tyre in southern Lebanon, which has been almost cut off from the rest of the country by Israel bombing surrounding bridges, the peal of church bells and velvety choral music filled the air.

Parishioners fervently prayed for peace, although sectarian hostilities have never been far from the surface in since the 1975-1990 civil war that largely pitted Christians against Muslims. Now, churchgoers say all Lebanese are suffering from the intensifying conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

“There's no bombing right here, right now, but no one is safe from this, not the Christians, not anyone,” said Mahia Jamus, a 20-year-old university student in Beirut. “No one is spared the effects.”

In Tyre, where thousands of residents remain in their homes and in shelters despite Israeli evacuation orders, Christians took comfort in the preservation of their ancient traditions despite the suffering around them.

“Amid the wars, the tragedies and the destruction that is happening, we are in our land,” Roseth Katra, 41, said from the centuries-old stone church in Tyre. “Today is Palm Sunday, and we are celebrating.”

---

Isabel DeBre in Beirut contributed to this report.