Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Fr van der Lugt arrived in Syria in 1966 and considered it to be his home 
  
 A Dutch priest well known for refusing to leave the besieged Syrian city of Homs has been shot dead by a gunman. 
  
 Frans van der Lugt, who was in his 70s, had become a renowned figure in the rebel-held area that has been blockaded by government forces for nearly two years. 
  
 He had refused to be evacuated, saying he would not leave Homs while there were still Christians in the city. 
  
 The motive behind Fr van der Lugt's killing is unclear. 
  
 Analysis Fr Frans van der Lugt's assassination has shocked Syrians across the country. A man of peace, he helped in the negotiations to break the siege on the Old City of Homs. The Jesuit priest refused to leave out of solidarity with its residents, sharing the suffering they are going through. There are 24 other Christians in the monastery where Fr van der Lugt was killed and the Church is worried about their safety. The situation in the Old City has deteriorated since a UN brokered deal in February allowing about 1,500 civilians to leave. But there are still hundreds trapped inside the city where no food is allowed in. An appeal was launched on Sunday from civil organisations urging the UN to help end the siege 
  
 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said he was shot twice in the head. 
  
 Jan Stuyt, secretary of the Dutch Jesuit Order, confirmed to AFP news agency that Fr van der Lugt had been killed. 
  
 "A man came into his house, took him outside and shot him twice in the head. In the street in front of his house," Mr Stuyt said. 
  
 Fr van der Lugt spent nearly five decades in Syria and considered the country to be his home. 
  
 "The Syrian people have given me so much, so much kindness, inspiration and everything they have. If the Syrian people are suffering now, I want to share their pain and their difficulties," he told AFP in February. 
  
 He stayed on even as some 1,400 people were evacuated from the city during a UN-supervised operation earlier this year. 
  
 A Jesuit, Fr van der Lugt arrived in Syria in 1966 after spending two years in Lebanon studying Arabic. 
  
 He lived in a Jesuit monastery, where he ministered to the area's remaining Christians and tried to help poor families. 
  
 "I don't see people as Muslims or Christian, I see a human being first and foremost," he told reporters. 
  
 Murder 'cowardly' 
  
 In a statement, the Vatican praised Fr van der Lugt as a "man of peace," and expressed "great pain" over his death. 
  
 Image copyright (C) British Broadcasting Corporation 
  
 "This is the death of a man of peace, who showed great courage in remaining loyal to the Syrian people despite an extremely risky and difficult situation," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said. 
  
 Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans called the murder "cowardly" and said Mr Van der Lugt had "brought nothing but good to Homs." 
  
 "Fr Frans deserves our thanks and our respect. He must be able to count on our commitment to help end this misery," Mr Timmermans added. 
  
 Those who knew him have also paid tribute on social media such as Twitter. 
  
 Peter Bouckeart, Emergency Director of Human Rights Watch, called the killing "horrible", while the BBC's Lyse Doucet said "terrible news... During Feb evacuation, refused to leave, saying wanted to stay with his people... RIP". ||||| Homs (Syria) (AFP) - There is little food or hope left in Syria's besieged Old City of Homs. But an elderly Dutch priest has remained there in solidarity with the Syrians he considers countrymen. 
  
 BEIRUT -- A Dutch priest who lived in Syria for almost five decades and refused to evacuate this year from the rebel-held Old City area of Homs was shot and killed at his residence early Monday, according to official accounts. 
  
 Father Frans Van der Lugt was eulogized by the Vatican as a “man of peace” who stayed behind in the ravaged Old City to assist a dwindling population of Christians and Muslims suffering the devastating effects of an almost two-year siege. Like Pope Francis, he was a Jesuit. 
  
 “This is the death of a man of peace, who showed great courage in remaining loyal to the Syrian people despite an extremely risky and difficult situation,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters. 
  
 His death prompted an outpouring of grief on Twitter and other social media forums. Pictures of the priest’s body, in white clerical garb and placed in a coffin, were also circulated on the Web. 
  
 The motive for killing Van der Lugt, who was in his 70s, was not clear. 
  
 The Syrian state media blamed “armed terrorist groups’’ -- the government’s description for armed rebels. 
  
 Various opposition groups denied involvement and alleged that the government killed the priest in a bid to inflame sectarian tensions and justify military bombardment of civilian districts. A statement from the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front condemned the killing as a “heinous act.” 
  
 According to the official media, “terrorists” opened fire on the priest at dawn at the Jesuit residence in the Bustan al-Diwan district in the Old City of Homs. The area is under the control of Islamist rebels. 
  
 Other accounts indicated that one or two gunmen arrived at the priest’s door, forced him outside and shot him in the head. 
  
 In February, the bespectacled Jesuit declined to leave the Old City as the United Nations arranged for the evacuation of more than 1,400 people, including a remnant population of fewer than 100 Christians. The quarter was once home to thousands of Christians and many churches. Most of the churches, like area mosques, have suffered heavy damage, clerics said. 
  
 The priest said it was his duty to remain with his “flock.” 
  
 Van der Lugt, reportedly a trained psychotherapist, occasionally spoke to journalists and helped publicize the plight of people living under siege in Homs, suffering from a lack of food, medical attention and other basic services. 
  
 The Syrian military had cut off the area for almost two years, trapping rebels and several thousand civilians inside the warren of streets and alleys in the sprawling Old City, now largely reduced to rubble by shelling and gun battles. Snipers from both sides prevent entry and exit from the area. 
  
 “I do not accept that we drown in a sea of hunger, letting the waves of death drag us under,” the priest said this year in a widely circulated video clip. “We love life. We want to live. And we do not want to sink in a sea of pain and suffering.” 
  
 His killing could spark new concerns for the fate of Syria’s Christian minority, who accounted for about 10% of the population before the armed conflict erupted three years ago. Many Christians express fears for their community’s existence should Islamist-led rebels manage to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad. 
  
 The Assad family’s more than four-decade rule has featured a crushing of political dissent but a tolerance for religious minorities. Syria became a haven for tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing church bombings and other militant Islamist attacks in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. 
  
 Last month, a furor erupted in the Armenian diaspora community worldwide when Syrian rebels, including militants aligned with the Nusra Front, surged across the border from Turkey and overran the historic Armenian Christian town of Kassab in Syria’s northwestern Latakia province. Most of the population fled south to the sanctuary of government-controlled territory, community leaders said. 
  
 Opposition spokesmen denied reports that the Christians of Kassab were targeted by rebels. Fierce fighting continues in the area as the Syrian military battles to recapture the town. 
  
 Church officials say Islamist rebels have also been behind a wave of kidnappings of Christian clerics and nuns. A pair of Christian bishops and an Italian Jesuit priest, Paolo Dall'Oglio, remain missing after being abducted in northern Syria. A group of 13 nuns kidnapped by Syrian rebels were released last month in exchange for prisoners held by the government. 
  
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 patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com 
  
 Twitter: @mcdneville 
  
 Bulos is a special correspondent. |||||
A:
An elderly Dutch priest who refused to leave the embattled city of Homs while Christians remained has become yet another victim of the country's civil war. Frans Van der Lugt, who was in his 70s, was shot dead by unknown gunmen at his home in a rebel-held district of the city, reports the BBC. He had been in Syria for nearly 50 years and insisted on staying when the United Nations evacuated 1,400 people from the city in February, saying it was his duty to stay with his "flock." The priest did much to publicize the hardship faced by Christians and Muslims alike in the besieged district, which has been cut off by the Syrian military for nearly two years. "This is the death of a man of peace, who showed great courage in remaining loyal to the Syrian people despite an extremely risky and difficult situation," a Vatican spokesman said. Syrian state media blamed rebels for the priest's murder, while opposition groups claimed he had been killed by the government to raise sectarian tensions, the Los Angeles Times reports.