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| Jawad is one of the latest civilian victims (Image: BBC) |
An 11-year-old boy and his uncle, who were killed in an Israeli air strike, have had their funerals held in a southern Lebanese village. After their family home was attacked the previous day, Jawad Younes and his uncle Ragheb Younes, who was 41 years old at the time, were laid to rest on Saturday in Saksakiyeh. They are one of the most recent casualties in Israel's offensive against the armed group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran. This comes after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel earlier this month during the conflict between the US and Israel over Iran. Since the escalation began, more than 1,100 people, including civilians, have been killed, according to health officials in Lebanon. A request for clarification regarding the strike's intended target at the Younes family compound was unanswered. For the funeral of Jawad and Ragheb, hundreds gathered in the town center of Saksakiyeh. One of the bodies was draped in Hezbollah's yellow flag, a sign of the group's support in this predominantly Shia region, and women in black robes wailed over it. Malak Meslmani, Jawad's mother, sat beside her son's body with tears streaming down her face.
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She stated to the BBC, "My son is gentle and pure." "He loved the idea of martyrdom and wanted to join the resistance when he grew up." "He wanted to fight back against Israel, the enemy who killed him," Israeli air strikes could be heard in the distance as the funeral procession approached the grave. Smoke plumes rose from nearby hilltops. On Friday, the strike at the home of the Younes family occurred shortly after 13:00 (11:00 GMT). Hussein Younes, Jawad's father, stated that his son was playing football with his nine cousins at the time. The father of Jawad yelled, "I don't know!," as he stood in front of the wreckage of his house. When asked why the Israeli military had targeted the house, he responded, "I don't know!" He stated to the BBC, "If this were a military base, no kids would be here." According to multiple family members and members of the local council, the family has no military ties to Hezbollah.
Five people survived the attack, and those wounded were taken to a nearby hospital. Zeinab, Jawad's aunt, was one of them. She said, through tears from her hospital bed, "Before it happened, me and my husband were inside." "We heard nothing, saw nothing, and saw nothing," After that, I ended up under a pile of rubble." Zeinab is being treated for a broken spine and a fractured leg. She is likely to require extensive surgery, but doctors say they are hopeful that she will regain her ability to walk. She claimed that the family would have fled had they been informed that there had been no advance warning of the strike.
Jaward and Ragheb's burial comes just a day after another family in the same neighbourhood buried two children and their mother. In addition, they perished as a result of Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon, which came amid another round of deadly attacks.
Authorities said that an intentional Israeli attack on their media vehicle resulted in the deaths of three Lebanese journalists on Saturday, including Ali Shoeib, a well-known reporter for Al Manar TV, a Hezbollah-affiliated station. The Israeli army described him as a Hezbollah member who had been exposing Israeli military positions in southern Lebanon, without providing evidence to support the claims.
Joseph Aoun, the president of Lebanon, called the attack a "blatant crime" that went against all rules about how journalists should be protected during war. The Committee to Protect Journalists has previously accused Israel of repeatedly killing media professionals while alleging they were militants without providing credible evidence.
Additionally on Saturday, five paramedics were killed in the town of Zoutar by an Israeli air strike. Israel's recurrent attacks on healthcare workers in Lebanon, according to human rights groups, could be considered war crimes. While ground forces continue to advance in the south as part of an ongoing offensive, Israeli air strikes have ravaged towns and villages across Lebanon since March 2. Israel says its operations are aimed at Hezbollah targets, but civilians are frequently among those killed.
On Friday, the UN's refugee agency warned that Lebanon was facing a worsening humanitarian crisis that could become catastrophic, with more than one million people now displaced.
Israel and Hezbollah have both stated that they will continue the conflict in Lebanon despite the increasing human cost.
Many of them, like the Younes family that is still alive, say they are willing to pay the price. Ali, Zainab's son, stated, "We are not afraid of the war, because we are not afraid of death."
Source: BBC
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