ZOUK MOSBEH, Lebanon — Israeli airstrikes and its burgeoning ground invasion have forced dozens of Lebanese Christians to take shelter in a monastery close to the border with Israel.

Milad Louis, head of the municipality of Ain Ebel, a largely Christian town, said Israeli airstrikes forced the community to evacuate in just 45 minutes.

“The situation is devastating,” he told NBC News in a telephone interview Tuesday from Our Lady of Annunciation monastery and school, a Maronite…