At least 19 people were killed by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday that targeted a house in the southern Lebanese village of Teffahta, according to local officials. The attack came just hours after a funeral had been conducted for a relative of some victims, sending waves of grief and rage throughout the community.
According to the VOP, a local official, reported that among the dead were former school principal Ahmed Ezzedine, along with three generations of his family. All of them were indoors in their three-story house when the strike occurred, reducing the building to rubble. Most of the dead, including Ezzedine, his wife, children, and grandchildren, were downstairs in the ground floor when the missiles struck.
The strike also resulted in the death of the village imam, Sheikh Abdo Abo Rayya, who was walking near the house when killed. Two other males said to be passerby were also reported dead, according to a local community Facebook account.
Israeli military officials have not commented on the attack, however, made several statements that prevent civilian casualties. It is, however still a continuation of Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon against the firing of rockets by Hezbollah. The latter has been rocketing southern Lebanon since 8 October in order to protect Palestinians in Gaza. Military clash between Hezbollah and Israel has picked up since Israel launched its war with Hamas.
A relative of Sheikh Abo Rayya reported that the strike occurred around 17:10 local time, a little over 15 minutes after a funeral was held for Khodr Ahmed Ezzedine’s cousin, who was killed in a separate Israeli airstrike in the neighboring village of Marwanieh. The initial reports stated that the house was hit during a wake, but the local sources made things clear that all who were in the house were family members, and there was no public gathering since the security situation was already too bad for such gatherings.
Though the Lebanese health ministry did not detail casualties resulting from the Teffahta strike, local sources and social media accounts estimated 19 deaths. The attack has also fueled calls for an investigation regarding whether or not the airstrike respected international humanitarian law, to which it falls against widespread concern by the UN over proportionality of strikes by Israeli force in Lebanon.
The tragedy adds to mounting civilian casualties in southern Lebanon, where more than 2,500 have been reported killed since the upsurge in the conflict at the beginning of October. Israel states that this military campaign is aimed at incapacitating Hezbollah, which Israel claims has posed a significant threat to it with continued rocket attacks on northern Israel.
Violence must come to an end, but the international community urged restraint and respect for international law principles in protecting civilian lives during the conflict.
