05:37 PM CDT on Friday, July 14, 2006

By Dan Lauck / 11 News

Houstonians overseas are finding themselves caught in the crossfire, unable to escape an escalating Middle East crisis between Israel and Lebanon.

KHOU - TV

Father Milad Yaghi turns to a higher power for the safety return of parishioners in Lebanon and peace in the region.

The neighboring countries have been swapping gunfire.

Israeli warplanes Friday, bombed runways at the Beirut International Airport, Lebanon’s primary gateway to the outside world.

What’s happening there is closely being watched half a world away.

One Houston church is worried sick for a hundred members urrounded by violence.

Inside, the TV set is now on always either on cnn or the Lebanon Network or Al Jazeera.

So the interpretations may vary.

But for Father Milad Yaghi and the members of Our Lady of the Cedars Maronite Catholic Church the news from Beirut is bad and the timing worse. 

AP

“150 families is in lebanon right now,” said Father Yaghi.

One hundred and fifty families, including Richard Webb’s wife and two children. “They can see all the bombings and the fires and they’re scared.”

Israeli war planes have been systematically bombing Lebanon’s infrastructure including the airport and the highway to Syria essentially the only ways out.

None of this did they see coming.

Father Yaghi  was in Beirut last week. “It was so nice. many tourists were coming to Lebanon to spend their vacation and visit their families. Politically, it was so calm.”

The tourists are now hiding as far as they can get from the city’s landmarks.

It took nearly a decade to rebuild downtown Beirut after the civil war. And the fear now is that it will all be destroyed again in just a few days.

Now, at least, they know they can be rebuild from its ruins.

But a family there is no replacing.