In a Maronite Christian village near the border of Lebanon and Israel, residents refuse to leave despite the jets roaring overhead and constant threat of airstrikes.

“We just want peace,” Manal El Hajj, a local mother told The Washington Post. “We do not want this war.”

Much of Southern Lebanon is under Hezbollah control – yet a handful or rural villages are home to a majority Christian population.

The residents are not joining Hezbollah’s fight. Their neutrality on the conflict once protected them – but as tensions grow, the war rages closer to home.

In early October, Israel issued an evacuation notice to Manal Ej Hajj’s village – yet her family are unable to leave due to financial hardship.

Lebanon has experienced economic crisis for five years, leaving many already facing hunger even before the war began.

Manal’s nine-year-old daughter has autism, and the family feel the noise and crowding of moving to public shelter would feel like “humiliation” for her, and be mentally overwhelming.

As they watch the horrific images of death and destruction broadcast from across the border on the news, Manal said: “All I pray for is that nothing happens to my children, that they don’t end up like the kids I see on TV.”

In another Christian town, Sunday Mass is the only remaining community event. Attendance has drastically dropped due to fatalities, and the majority of families fleeing.

Yet the church prevails. Regina Lynch, executive president of Aid to the Church in Need said: “Lebanon has been going from crisis to crisis over the past decades, suffering from political instability… and now these attacks from Israel.

“Despite all this, the Church has continued serve the people, providing material and spiritual support at every turn… We are confident that our friends and benefactors will understand the urgency of supporting the Church in Lebanon to carry out God’s work.”