Nun captured by Israeli forces in Lebanon returns to native France

A Catholic nun who was living in south Lebanon for over a decade has returned to France after her abduction and release by the Israeli army from a Lebanese border village, according to reports.

Beatrice Mauger, a 60-year-old Catholic nun and founder of a hermitage in the Christian village of Qauzah in Bint Jbiel, was captured by Israeli forces on 15 October, and taken into northern Israel, where she was held and questioned for two days.

Mauger was then released to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who handed her over to the Lebanese army, according to news site L'Orient Today.

The Lebanese army then released her to the French embassy under her request, and she was returned to France "permanently", the report said.

Mauger lived in the village of Qauzah for 12 years and built an "Ark of Peace" near Aita al-Shaab in 2015 which was dedicated to spirituality.

The project was helped by the Maronite archbishopric of Tyre, who also developed a farm around the hermitage, which was a sanctuary for several animals looked after by Mauger.

One of the animals was a monkey named Tachtouch who in 2019 had breached the heavily militarised border between Lebanon and Israel, roaming into northern Israel for over a week before being handed back to Mauger by the UNIFIL.

Israel's bombardment of Lebanon, which intensified and expanded on 23 September and escalated into a ground invasion on 1 October, has seen Lebanon's Christian communities attacked indiscriminately alongside Hezbollah targets and Shia areas in Bekaa, Beirut and southern Lebanon.

On 14 October an Israeli airstrike killed 18 people in the Christian-majority town of Aitou in north Lebanon. It came just days after a 9 October strike on the Lebanese town of Dardghaya in Tyre killed five aid workers and damaged a church.

Other churches have also been struck by Israel, including the National Evangelical Church in Alma al-Shaab in January. The church dates back to 1860.

Israel's attacks on Christian towns in Lebanon, which have little to do with the Shia group Hezbollah, appeared to be a policy aimed at sowing sectarian tension within Lebanon.

However, throughout the war, many Christian areas continued to welcome displaced people from Shia neighbourhoods targeted by Israeli attacks.

This includes the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Good Hope in Jabboule, which has received at least 800 internally displaced people according to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Around one million people have been displaced by Israel's bombardment of Lebanon, which since it broke out on 8 October 2023 has killed 2,787 people and wounded 12,772.