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Hussein Saleh’s wife and young daughter will never again greet him at the entrance of their home in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, nor will he ever know the gender of his unborn child. His family was killed, along with relatives, in an Israeli attack two days before he and his wife, who was three months pregnant, were due to find out whether she was carrying a boy or a girl.
The March 6 air strike on his uncle's house killed Mr Saleh's wife, Hanieh, his five-year-old daughter Sara, his unborn child and six members of his extended family. His family had fled their own home days earlier, after the Israeli army said they would attack the neighbourhood.
“We said, let’s go somewhere safe. There were no threats on this place,” Mr Saleh said, referring to his uncle Hussein's house near Tyre’s historic Roman hippodrome. A nearby Lebanese army barracks gave them a sense of added security.
Three days later, Mr Saleh left the house hours before sunset to buy ingredients for iftar, the meal that breaks the day-long Ramadan fast. Sara, who is partially paralysed, and her cousin Roqaya were playing in the garden with a baby goat. It was the last time he saw them alive.
He next saw his daughter an hour later, after he heard an explosion and rushed home to find a massive crater where his uncle’s house stood.
“As soon as I heard the strike, I put my hand on my head and shouted, 'Sara! Sara! My family!' I knew they were gone," Mr Saleh told The National.
He found Sara’s head near the garden, amid the rubble. “When I picked up her head, everything changed,” he said, speaking softly and slowly, still trying to make sense of the deaths. “Something in my heart broke and went silent. I was no longer myself. I stopped crying.”
He said he has not cried since – a response to severe shock. Weeks later, he has not yet recovered. The pain is evident in his speech, as is the likelihood that he might fall apart if a tear were to escape.
In total, eight members of the Saleh family were killed: Hussein’s wife and daughter; his uncle Hassan and his wife, Fatima, and their two children, Roqaya and Zein, all Swedish citizens; and his two aunts, Samira and Khadija.
Families wiped out
Eight members of Nahla family in Kfarhatta; eight of the Hamdan family in Al Nimiriya; six of the Basma family in Nabatieh; six of the Abd Al Sattar family in Baalbek; and eight of the Salehs in Tyre – all were killed without warning in Israeli attacks as its invasion of south Lebanon advances in what it calls a bid to create a “security zone” that would keep Hezbollah away from the border.
The Israeli military says Hezbollah members and infrastructure are the targets of attacks, but rarely provides evidence. Israel has hit residential buildings and civilian homes, densely populated areas and vital infrastructure. Iran-backed Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel on March 2 in support of Tehran in the Iran war and in response to Israel’s repeated breaches of a 2024 ceasefire with the Lebanese group.
A conditional two-week ceasefire in the Iran war was agreed to on Wednesday, but Israel said it would not apply to its offensive in Lebanon.
Israel has struck the heart of Lebanon's capital and launched a ground invasion in the south, forcing about 1.2 million people to flee their homes. At least 1,497 have been killed in Israeli attacks since the war with Hezbollah resumed – including 126 children, 93 women, 54 paramedics and five journalists.
Israel appears to be applying parts of the same playbook it used in Gaza, where a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said Israeli forces committed a genocide against Palestinians – killing more than 72,000 people, including entire extended families, and causing mass displacement and widespread destruction.
‘No one had a full body left’
The blast from the two Israeli missiles fired at the home of Mr Saleh’s uncle destroyed the house, damaged nearby cars and uprooted trees. “It’s like there was never a house here,” Mr Saleh said as he searched the site, still hoping, almost a month later, to find something that belonged to his wife and daughter. “I have almost nothing left of them,” he added.
His family brought everything of sentimental value with them to the house, thinking they were saving their memories. Mr Saleh showed The National where he had found parts his wife, daughter and relatives' bodies. “They were all in pieces. No one had a full body left,” he said.
It took him three days to collect all the remains with the help of paramedics. He could not give them a proper funeral in their native town of Ramieh, near the border, where there is heavy fighting after Israel's invasion. Instead, he buried his family in a temporary mass grave in the city. With Israel expanding its occupation, he might never be able to give them a proper burial.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military did not launch a strike on Mr Saleh’s home despite its warning. “The Israelis know everything. They knew there were children and women in this house. And yet, they still targeted it,” he said.
Like the Salehs, tens of thousands of residents have remained Tyre, a coastal city south of the Litani River, despite a forced displacement order issued by the Israeli military for most parts of the city. Such orders, decried as illegal by human rights groups, have been issued for about 14 per cent of Lebanon's territory.
Many people have nowhere else to go. Already displaced from border towns or areas of Tyre and the outskirts of the city considered more dangerous, they are now staying in government shelters in the city.
Others are afraid that if they leave the city they will never be able to return. Israel has increasingly isolated the south, destroying bridges over the Litani and severing it from the rest of Lebanon. There is now only one crossing left into Tyre.
The sound of bombing interrupts Mr Saleh’s harrowing account of the attack, as he struggles to find the words to explain how he manages to keep going after the death of his family. “I worked and struggled all my life so my family could grow. Suddenly, I lost everything," he added.
He had hoped to see his daughter walk again in a few months as she was undergoing treatment for her paralysis.
“Israel is only creating more and more hatred,” he said. “Every house has someone who was killed or wounded. If not in the same house, then the house of their brother or relative. Every house carries a story of massacre like this.”
