The apartment block on a steep hill, overlooking rolling hills and a tennis court, was hit by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday evening.
By Wednesday morning, the death toll was at least 30 and maybe 32, a civil defence member said. The “complete” bodies they recovered included those of a seven-month-old baby, a seven-year-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and seven women. There were other pieces of women’s bodies, he added – how many more they made up had yet to be ascertained.
A rescue team continued to search, using a mechanical digger to shift soil, rubble and the detritus of civilian lives. Scattered in the rubble were bobble hats, a tricycle, Disney-branded children’s sandals, a baby chair and a saucepan. Two people, believed to have been on the lowest floor, remained missing.
The building in Barja, a mostly Sunni town about 30km south of Beirut, was home to a lot of displaced people, neighbours said.
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Many showed up to watch the rescue efforts, some concurrently gathering their belongings out of the nearest homes or beginning to sweep up shattered glass and assess what could be repaired.
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“I saw the corpse of a child in the street,” said Mustafa Hoho (41), who lived in the next building. He said he rushed out after the explosion to find a big fire. “There were too many victims.” Those living in the building included people displaced from south Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have both been frequently attacked by Israel. Some of them were Palestinian, Hoho believed.
Another neighbour, 13-year-old Ali, described the sound of the air strike as being like thunder. “They were our neighbours. Those are refugees coming during the crisis,” he said. Some of the dead included his friends.
A 69-year-old man, who declined to give his name, said he was visiting his daughter. He had seen no one suspicious in the area, though if someone associated with the militant group Hizbullah had entered the apartment building then he said that person should be blamed. “Why did he come here, he knows he’s being targeted by Israel?”
An Israeli army spokesman did not immediately respond to a request about the motivation for the air strike.
None of the neighbours who The Irish Times spoke to said they had seen evidence of Hizbullah activity.
Amin Basma (54) picked up a milk bottle lying in the rubble. “This is for a small baby,” he said. “What did she do for this bottle to be left like this? I blame Israel for that, this is what they want.”
He said if Israeli forces wanted to kill a single Hizbullah official they could have waited until he left the building and then hit him. “Israel wants to kill everyone,” he said.
Basma comes from Ain Baal, a Lebanese village 60km further south, roughly 25km from the Israeli border. When the Israeli escalation started at the end of September, his relatives came to stay in the building that was hit. Three of their children were visiting his home on Tuesday evening and escaped the blast, but the remaining relatives were killed, including nine- and 12-year-old girls. “I didn’t expect what would happen,” he said, seemingly blaming himself in his grief. “I saved just three people.”
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On Wednesday, Lebanon’s ministry of health said at least 3,050 people have been killed and 13,658 wounded by Israeli attacks since October 2023 – the vast majority since September 23rd, when Israel began an air campaign it said was aimed at Hizbullah-linked targets. Those killed so far include 600 women, 190 children and 179 healthcare workers, the ministry of health added. In Israel, 72 people have been killed by Hizbullah rockets and missiles, including 30 soldiers, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
Between October 8th, 2023 and the end of October this year, Lebanese security officials said there were at least 11,647 Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
An analysis of satellite imagery by the Washington Post found that at least a quarter of all buildings in Lebanon’s south have been damaged or destroyed by Israel, which has also launched a ground invasion. Data collected by the Sunday Times found that 53 per cent of Israeli attacks have been outside of areas under evacuation orders. Like them, the air strike in Barja came without warning.
“Pigs are better than [Binyamin] Netanyahu,” said Abu Khalid, a 60-year-old retired Lebanese army soldier from Barja.
He was angry at the US for supporting Israel, and said it made no difference who won the US presidential election. “They are both similar... [Donald] Trump, [Kamala] Harris, they are all against the Arabs and the Muslims. They have the same politics. This election is really good for Israel.”
“We are poor people here,” said another 60-year-old who did not want to be named for safety reasons.
He said while the US may be a democracy domestically, in Lebanon “they are trying to divide us. They are sending terrorism to us. They are killing innocent people.” He called Netanyahu a “criminal” and said he had an important message.
“We don’t need missiles and rockets, just bring democracy to this country.”
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