Ahead of Lebanese engineer Maya Gharib’s wedding next month, excited relatives were making arrangements to pick up her dress.
But on Monday, Gharib, 23, his two sisters and their parents were killed in an Israeli attack on their home in a suburb of the southern city of Tyre, said Gharib’s brother Reda, the only surviving member of the family.
Israel says Monday’s strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons. Lebanon’s health ministry said the attacks killed more than 550 people, including at least 50 children and 98 women. It was Lebanon’s bloodiest day since the 1975-90 civil war.
Screenshots shared with Reuters show a message sent by a relative to the dress shop after the poor family’s death: “The bride has been martyred.”
“They were sitting at home and then their house was targeted,” Reda Gharib, who moved to Senegal for work last year, told Reuters by phone.
The family was buried in a hurry the next day, with very few people present because of the threat of attack. Reda was unable to fly as most flights were cancelled due to Israeli attacks and rocket attacks from Hezbollah.
His father was a retired soldier in the Lebanese army, an inter-communal force funded by the U.S. and other countries and widely seen as a source of unity in Lebanon. His sisters were all in their 20s.
“We are a nationalist family with no affiliation to any party, although we stand with all those who oppose the invasion,” Reda Gharib said, adding that no family member is a member of Hezbollah.
But he says that now, having lost his family, he wants Hezbollah to keep fighting Israel “until victory” and not accept any negotiations.
‘Non-discriminatory’
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on October 8, a day after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel while declaring a “support front” for the Palestinians.
Clashes have escalated sharply over the past week, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured in Lebanon, while Israel has launched an air campaign that has hit much of the country.
Since the chaos caused by Israeli attacks on Monday, reports have emerged of several family members being killed.
Eight members of a family and a domestic worker from Gambia were killed in an Israeli attack on the southern city of Hanouniyeh, relatives said.
Mohamed Saksouk, whose brother Hassan was among those killed, told Reuters the attack hit a building next to his home, which collapsed on his house.
He said the family had nothing to do with Hezbollah and criticized Israel for “indiscriminate” attacks, questioning why Lebanon had been dragged into a conflict that Hezbollah says is in support of the Palestinians.
“Now we are homeless. We are living on the streets,” he said over the phone from a temporary shelter. “Earlier we were leading a completely normal life. Who will give us back our homes?”
The victims included Hassan Saksouk, his adult children Mohammed and Mona, Mohammed’s wife Fatima and their 9-month-old daughter Rima, and Mona’s three children, all under the age of 9.
Anna, a Gambian worker in her 30s, also died.
In the coastal town of Saqsakih, 11 civilians were killed on Monday, including six women and two children, according to mayor Ali Abbas. He said homes were hit by direct attacks.
“These are civilian houses, they have no connection to any kind of military establishment,” Abbas told Reuters.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
