Beirut, Lebanon, Nov 30, 2025 / 08:32 am

The sky over Lebanon — once dominated by missile exchanges and relentless air raids during the 2023–2024 conflict between Hezbollah and Israel — opened Sunday not to warplanes but to the aircraft carrying Pope Leo XIV. Touching down in the Land of the Cedars, the Holy Father begins a mission to preach the Gospel of peace to a nation long wounded by conflict and instability.

Fighting along Lebanon’s southern border reignited in October 2023 as a spillover of the Gaza war. Hezbollah, a Shia militia supported by Iran and formed after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, became the principal actor in the renewed confrontation with Israel. Although a fragile agreement in late November 2024 reduced hostilities, intermittent violence has continued, and

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