{"id":8918,"date":"2023-12-23T13:42:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T13:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=8918"},"modified":"2023-12-23T13:42:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T13:42:57","slug":"israel-war-dampens-christmas-spirit-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/23\/israel-war-dampens-christmas-spirit-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel War Dampens Christmas Spirit in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sudan Events \u2013 Sumaya Sayed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the Lebanese Christian border village of Qlayaa, the priest urged his parish to keep the Christmas spirit alive despite clashes between Hezbollah and Israel forcing many to flee.<br \/>\nNestled among lush, green fields and flowing olive groves, Qlayaa has echoed to the sound of bombing on an almost daily basis since October 7.<br \/>\n\u201cOf course, we are upset and bothered by the war&#8230; but we want to feel the joy of Christmas,\u201d Father Pierre Rai told a dwindling number of parishioners in Qlayaa\u2019s Maronite Saint George Church.<br \/>\n\u201cSo long as we have decided to remain in this village, and in other southern Lebanon border villages, we must live and enjoy each thing in its right time.\u201d<br \/>\nFor nearly three months, Israeli rockets have been falling close to Qlayaa, which lies less than five kilometres (three miles) from the border.<br \/>\nSo far, however, the Christian villages in the area have been spared destruction.<br \/>\nSince hostilities began, more than 140 people have been killed on the Lebanese side, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including more than a dozen civilians, three of them journalists.<br \/>\nOn the Israeli side, at least four civilians and eight soldiers have been killed, according to officials. Despite the violence, the church has put up lights, a life-sized manger and is planning recitals and activities for the community\u2019s children.<br \/>\nA massive Christmas tree decorated with red ornaments sits in the village\u2019s empty square, with reindeer statues nearby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sudan Events \u2013 Sumaya Sayed In the Lebanese Christian border village of Qlayaa, the priest urged his parish to keep the Christmas spirit alive despite clashes between Hezbollah and Israel forcing many to flee. Nestled among lush, green fields and flowing olive groves, Qlayaa has echoed to the sound of bombing on an almost daily &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8920,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8918\/revisions\/8920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}