ISRAEL: Lebanese nun at a mission in Haifa worries about family left behind

Nun Ellen Emhawij is placing her trust in God to protect her from Hizbollah rockets in the northern Israeli city of Haifa but can't stop worrying for her family left in Lebanon. Emhawij was born and raised in the Lebanese city of Beirut along with three brothers and three sisters. When she was a teenager she decided to dedicate her life to God and joined the church as a nun and a teacher. In the year 2000 Emhawij was sent to Israel to serve as a teacher at Haifa's 'Nazareth Nuns' monastery where she is responsible for the religious and formal education of Christian Israeli children, leaving her family behind. But violence between Israel and Lebanon broke on July 12, when Hizbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid, provoking the worst Israeli retaliation in years. The Hizbollah rockets that slam daily the city of Haifa do not worry Emhawij -- her monastery has a well-equipped shelter and she trusts that God will protect her. But she can't stop thinking of her siblings still living in Beirut, where Israeli warplanes are dropping tons of explosives day and night. "I am not able to see them, but I am constantly checking on them. Almost once a year I go to see them for 10-15 days and come back during the summer vacation, and now I should have been there to check on them, to see my brothers and sisters and the rest of the family. Of course I am very emotionally affected by this war and worried about them," she told Reuters. Despite the fact that most of the Israeli attacks are launched at Shi'ite towns or quarters that are related to Hizbollah, Emhawij's family's reports are worrying. "My sister lives in Beirut, but not in Beirut where they (Israeli Army) are bombing. She can hear it, she told me when they bombard in a nearby area, she can feel and see the building shaking and rattling," Emhawij said. Emhawij tries to call her family regularly to make sure they are well, trying not to think about the more than 1,400 rockets that have hit Northern Israel since the conflict began, one of them killing eight Israelis in Haifa. The United States has given Israel the green light to pursue its assault on Lebanon by refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire or to allow the U.N. Security Council do so. "No one likes war, no one wants violence, destruction, damage, killing and displacement, even some people are saying that they are left speechless, this is a great misery to human kind," Emhawij said.

ITN Source | July 29, 2006

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