Lebanon: ‘Entire neighborhood destroyed’ in Israeli air strike

Since Israel began stepping up airstrikes against Hezbollah in September, rockets have hit every part of the country. Israeli leaders believe that this military operation, which cost the lives of Hezbollah’s senior leaders, has brought them great victories so far.

But it is also a campaign that has claimed the lives of many innocents, and there are numerous reports of entire families being killed in attacks across the country.

More than 1,900 Lebanese have been killed since Israel stepped up airstrikes, according to government figures. The statistics do not distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and civilians.

Although it did not give any advance evacuation orders to residents on Monday night, the Israeli military later announced that they had targeted a “Hezbollah terrorist target” but did not provide further details.

Initial reports from the scene suggested that the compound of the Rafik Hariri hospital, the capital’s largest public hospital, had been hit, but the Israeli army denied this.

Damage to the hospital is superficial, but across a road full of parked cars with blown out windows lies a poor neighborhood that was hit.

Fouad’s son Ahmed also joins us. He shows us a photo of his son in intensive care at the hospital, his face bandaged and bloody.

“This was my home; Now it’s gone, like everything else. We have nowhere to go and no clothes. This is a massacre. We have no base here, no Hezbollah, no nothing,” says Ahmed.

It is not clear why the military chose to order evacuations before some missile strikes and not others; But when Israel attacks without warning in a densely populated area, the human cost can be indiscriminate and high.

Fouad explains that he played with young children in the neighborhood who died in the strike.

“Every time I enter the neighborhood I hear ‘Grandpa, Grandpa! What did you bring us?’ I would give them candy, chips and popcorn. Their loss saddens me; they all died. “Their mother was still trapped under the rubble with one of her children.”

As we begin to leave the area, silence falls over the gathered people and we see a stretcher carrying a wrapped body being taken away by the digger.

It was said that a mother was with the child.