The Church of Haoush Hala was raked by machine gun fire two days after that. Over several days during November, Hizbollah militants fired rockets at the Church of Aishie in south Lebanon while parishioners were inside. Lebanon's Christian community fears the worst. Israel is set to withdraw from the security zone in south Lebanon by July, leaving some 110,000 Christians exposed to Syrian and Hizbollah forces. Approximately 180,000 people live in south Lebanon.
Christians also are concerned about the threat of religious persecution from the Beirut regime.
CSW is calling for international protection to ensure their safety. Syria began moving its forces into Lebanon in 1976. Israel followed suit in 1978 and again in June 1982 before pulling its forces back to establish a security zone in the south to protect against terrorist attacks. Successive United Nations resolutions have called on Israel and Syria to withdraw. In 1989, the Taif Agreement officially ended the war and imposed a Syrian withdrawal by September 1992.