Sydney - Middle East Times Int’l: Secretary of the “Independents Meeting for Lebanon,” Dr. Rafi Madian, condemned in a statement, “the Israeli enemy’s artillery targeting the Church of Saint George in the border town of Yaroun in the south and intentionally destroying it with the aim of displacing the Christians who are steadfast in their land in the towns of the border strip and turning them against the resistance.” He saw that “the Zionist enemy government, which carries out massacres in Gaza, kills children, and destroys churches and hospitals there, is also practicing the same method in southern Lebanon, especially killing children, displacing citizens, and bombing places of worship.”

He considered that "the Israeli entity wants to empty southern Lebanon, after emptying Jerusalem and the cities of the Palestinian West Bank, of the Christian presence so that no one will remain in this region to bear witness to the Christian religion and no one will remain who clings to Islamic-Christian coexistence, the unity of the national territory, and the unity of the common destiny."

Madayan called for "strengthening the forms of solidarity and interdependence between the various Lebanese components in the south, and for state intervention through its existing institutions to secure the steadfastness of citizens in their border towns and villages."

He also called on "the Lebanese army to cooperate with the resistance in an appropriate response to Israeli attacks against civilians, their homes, churches, fields, and property."