Lebanese man says Israeli strike killed family of 17

Lebanese man says Israeli strike killed family of 17 | Daily Tribune

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Qassem al-Qadhi left his home in east Lebanon this weekend to buy bread for 17 family members, but when he returned they were all dead.

An Israeli air strike on Sunday hit the village of Zaboud in the Bekaa valley, killing a whole family, the national news agency NNA said.

Qadhi said it was his wife, children and grandchildren. They were killed in an instant.

The 57-year-old says the only member of the family who survived was his 25-year-old son Hussein, who had headed off to do his military service just before the strike.

“It was 11 a.m. We were all sitting in front of the house and then I went to buy them bread,” he told Agence France-Presse by phone.

While he was at the bakery he heard a loud explosion, he said.

“I tried to call them, then rushed home but there was no one left. Just body parts,” Qadhi said.

“Seventeen people — including my son’s fiancee and her mother, my wife, my three sons and two daughters, and seven grandchildren,” he said.

“Seventeen martyrs in my home.”

They included his oldest son Mohammad, 38, who was working as an electrician.

And his two youngest, Ali and Mehdi, who worked with him planting the land and looking after livestock.

And his two daughters Zaynab, 22, and Fatima, 18, who had been studying at university.

Qassem speaks of his seven grandchildren — the youngest aged just two and half years old and the oldest nine — as if they are still alive.

‘Were going to get married’

To compound their devastating loss, he and his surviving son are now homeless.

“We don’t have a home any more,” Qadhi said.

“There’s nowhere left for us to sleep except the fields and orchards.”

His surviving son Hussein is still in shock and trying to process what has happened.

As well of his mother and siblings, the Israeli strike killed his fiancee just days before their planned wedding.

“We were going to get married on 12 October, but my love is gone — gone in a massacre. I don’t know what to say,” he said.

Hussein said he left for his military service early on Sunday, and received the news shortly after reporting for duty.

“It was such a shock,” he said.

“Two hours earlier, I had been with them, and then suddenly no one was left.” He said no one had expected a strike on their tiny village some 125 kilometers from the border with Israel.

“We used to feel safe,” he said.

Israel says it has been targeting Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in increased air strikes since last week.

But reports have emerged of whole families in Lebanon being killed in the raids.

According to official Lebanese figures, hundreds of people have died and a million more have been forced to flee their homes.

At least 558 people were killed on Monday last week alone, the deadliest day of violence since the 1975 to 1990 Lebanese civil war.

The following day, Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters “the vast majority, if not all, of those killed” that day were “unarmed people in their homes.”