In forgotten Lebanon, children are still being killed by Israel

Three weeks Previously, I sat at a table in Bint Jbeil in South Lebanon and broke bread with family and friends. The exhaustion of the war was heavily worn on their faces, weighing the frames of the uncertainty of the future.

One of these people two weeks ago Israel was killed in the drone attack.

Ambush, one Violation of the ceasefire agreement was reached in November Last year, he killed Shadi Sobhi Sharara and his three children, a father between Hezbollah and Israel. Gemini Hadi and Celine, only 18 months, cut in the explosion and 10 -year -old sister Silane could not be saved. His mother Amani Bazzi remained with life -threatening injuries and his 13 -year -old sister ASEEL had several rounds of surgery and continued to fight for her life.

Israel used two missiles in an attack on an area with densely populated. The risk of civilian loss and death was clearly high. Israeli officials claim that they target an anonymous Hezbollah operator. They acknowledged that civilians were killed and said they examined the incident.

At the funeral, all five coffins were poured into the Lebanese flags and only Lebanese flags were swinging in the crowd. At other funerals in Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah posters are usually exhibited. They were buried for a year until the date Israel started an attack in Southern Lebanon. On that day, at least 558 people, including 50 children, died; 1,800 people were injured, According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

I spend a time that reconcile what happened. I drove that way. I shared a meal with one of those killed.

Blood drawn, twisted metal debris of the four -wheel drive of the family. School books buried with a child between bimburu and rubble. A blood stain that looks like a body burned to lift. Immivitable images after illegal aggression.

His face, his face swollen, rotten and stripped – holding the covered bodies of his children for a last farewell before buried. The image is haunting.

As I can remember the embrace of his father’s coffin, a picture of a two -year -old child, who doesn’t remember the embrace of his father’s coffin as he gets together to bury hundreds of mourning and more killed in the south.

Bint Jbeil is just a few kilometers from the historical Palestinian border. After Hamas started his attack on October 7, 2023, Israel returned. You can hear creepy every few hours explosion Ring. Sometimes you feel that the world under your feet is swinging.

“It’s just psychological,” he says to me, my family friend. “They use the border training bombs to scare us, but we are accustomed to this; we are not afraid.”

But it is not always “bombs training .. A week later, he would be his husband Mohamad.

Since the entry into force of the ceasefire, Israel has continued to start daily air strikes in Southern Lebanon and in the southern suburbs of Beirut. While walking on Thursday in the middle of Bint Jbeil, my daughter is eating freshly cooked manous in new purple shoes purchased from a stop owners, Israel is a school for children with disabilities (fortunately empty) Pummated A few kilometers away from belonging. According to the Lebanese Army, Israel has violated more than 4,500 cease -fire violations since the signing of the agreement. And more than 82,000 Lebanese people continue to be displaced, According to Médecins, Sans Frontières.

International Amnesty International Description last weekHe confirmed that the Israeli army confirmed that people from the border villages continued to prohibit from returning home and what I have witnessed on the ground – the continuous destruction of vital infrastructure and civil ownership without military necessity.

The deaths of five people in Bint Jbeil were not anomalies. Four days ago, Ahmad Saad and Mustafa Rizk were killed on another target drone strike. Men with both engineers were massacred in their cars in the Khardali region on their way to a study area. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk says More than 100 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire started.

. The roads in the south are marked with the faces of the dead peasants killed by Israel since October 2023. Men, women, children. Their faces are not erased, in my mind is printed forever.

War markers everywhere. Dust taken from dismantled buildings thick – inner and outside. Sneaky and especially when the bombs continue to cause destruction, it is difficult to rub. The Southern people are flexible; They are determined to rebuild and do their best to clean up the debris occurs, but there are too many destruction.

And destruction is not just physical. The Lebanese government has not yet allowed the International Criminal Court The authority to conduct investigation in the territory. As a result, the victims of these international law violations were left to wait for justice and return in order not to mention the psychological impact of war on a human being.

Southern People – Al Jnoub, who has been referenced with love in Arabic – have been living with the shadow of death for decades. They have fought with air strikes and Israeli occupations since the end of the 1970s.

“Can you leave Jnoub?” I ask, “Come to Australia, with your degree, can you build a life for you and your family?”

“But this is our land,” he says to me. His eyes are good with tears and there is a stability in his voice.

“What do we have if we don’t have a land? If we don’t have land, our land is our heart, we should stay, this is where our hearts live.”

It may be difficult for us to understand what this means for us. And I think that’s why the war continues to be destroyed: many of them in the West are paralyzed and paralyzed by very few questions what will happen beyond our shores.

Call many of the Bint Jbeil and its surrounding villages to his home. There is a large population of Jnoubis living in Sydney and Melbourne and their grandchildren. They know what this means.

They know that the people behind your mobile phone and your TV screens are real. They throw hearts and dreams and hopes for the future. They love people who love and love them. They are fathers, mothers, girls and sons. They have. And only the fact that you were born in Australia, not there, but the minds of the war and the minds of the war, and the minds of future generations.