BBC visits aftermath of Israeli strike on Lebanon that killed family as IDF targets Hezbollah

Summary

BBC visits aftermath of Israeli strike on Lebanon that killed family as IDF targets Hezbollah Warning - this article contains a graphic description of the aftermath of an explosion. As Israel continues to attack targets connected to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the BBC visited the remains of a home where eight members of a family, including three children, were killed in a strike. The yellow flag of the Iran-backed armed group was hanging on top of a pile of rubble in the northeastern town of Younine. There were children's toys and packets of sweets among the debris. The Israeli military told the BBC it had targeted "Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure while Hezbollah operatives were present". Neighbours and relatives at the scene said they had no knowledge of this. The strike hit a home and shop on Wednesday evening as an extended family, including three children - aged five, nine and 14 - were gathering to break the Ramadan fast, locals said. It is one of hundreds of strikes the Israeli military has carried out in Lebanon since the war with Hezbollah resumed almost two weeks ago. Most have focused on southern Lebanon, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, known as the Dahieh - the heartlands of Hezbollah and of Lebanon's Shia Muslim community. Some have also hit the centre of Beirut. More than 800 people have been killed in Israel's military action, according to figures from the Lebanese health ministry. They include 12 healthcare workers Lebanon's public health ministry says were killed in a strike on a medical centre in on Friday night. The IDF said it was aware of reports of a strike and the incident was under review. Hundreds of thousands more people have been forced from their homes by sweeping Israeli evacuation orders. Israel accuses Hezbollah of embedding its military infrastructure in civilian areas. In Younine on Saturday, locals recalled the moment of the strike, which they said came without any warning. A local shepherd told the BBC he was at the shop about 30 minutes beforehand, offering to supply the family with yoghurt. After hearing the explosion, he rushed from his home to see the building had collapsed and there were body parts scattered along the road. He collected them and passed them to first responders when they arrived on the scene. "My kids and I were all terrified. The whole area was… I have no words to explain what I saw," he said. He said his daughter was friends with one of the children killed in the strike and hadn't been properly eating or drinking since then. A Syrian woman living in a tent nearby said she would see the family every day and relied on them extending credit to her at their shop, which she had hoped to pay back after the war. She said she was still in shock. "It all happened so suddenly and all I know is that they are decent and religious but I have no idea why they would be targeted. We are Syrian refugees so we stay in our lane and don't interfere in anything," she said. At the site of the strike, items from the shop such as cartons of yoghurt and bottles of fizzy drinks were buried among the debris, along with household items including children's clothes and toys. A framed photograph of Iran's first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was partially covered in rubble. School teacher Hassan al-Tahan said the property belonged to his brother Ali Abbas, who had been hosting the Iftar meal for relatives at the time of the strike. "It was three [related] families having an iftar together… we always have gatherings together, we always sit at each other's houses," he said. "My house is nearby and when I heard the sounds, I came screaming and I saw something that I had never seen before". There is strong support for Hezbollah in the area, with photos commemorating its fighters and leaders on the streets nearby. Tahan said that while people in the area were generally supportive of the "resistance" fighting against Israel, he insisted his relatives were all civilians, not Hezbollah operatives. "We don't have any military items in the house but Israel attacked us because we are Shia. We belong to this community which is resisting. That's it," he said. "The Israelis claim they struck a Hezbollah facility. The Hezbollah facility turned out to be this civilian home. The Lebanese army came to inspect it and saw that there wasn't a single weapon here. There were kids, women, guys - those are the people who were martyred." The Lebanese health ministry described the eight people killed as civilians, and a local official confirmed Hassan's account that the Lebanese military had inspected the scene and found "no military items or weapons". The military did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment, and Hezbollah has not commented on the strike. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC it "takes the possible steps to mitigate harm to civilians and calls on them to distance themselves from the organisation's terrorist infrastructure for their own safety". "The IDF emphasises that it operates against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, which launched attacks against Israeli civilians, and not against the civilians of Lebanon," it added. As he spoke on the rubble of his brother's home, Tahan pulled a yellow Hezbollah scarf from his pocket and put it around his neck, saying that after this "painful incident" he would now be willing to fight alongside the group. "Even if we were not militarily affiliated before… From today, we are the soldiers of Hezbollah and proud of it," he said. Some in the area fled in fear after the strike, while those who had remained there were trying on Saturday to make sense of what had happened. "Is it acceptable that a young girl was burned to ashes?" the shepherd asked. "If they wanted a specific person, why kill the rest?"