“They killed her dream,” denounces the mother of a Lebanese international footballer, in a coma after an Israeli strike in Beirut

Céline Haidar, a 19-year-old player from the Beirut Football Academy, is in an induced coma after being hit by a strike in a neighborhood of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.

Céline Haidar was on her way to realizing her dream of representing Lebanon on the national team when she was seriously injured in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. Today, the young 19-year-old footballer, captain of the Beirut Football Academy women's first division team and Lebanese international, is still in intensive care, in a coma. “My daughter has a brain hemorrhage and a cracked skull. She's a hero, she'll get back up.”assures AFP his mother Sanaa Shahroura.

Céline's family took refuge in Baakline, a town nestled in the mountains, when Israeli bombings increased in intensity on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, a few weeks ago. “But Céline was forced to go to Beirut for her studies and training”his father Abbas Haidar tells AFP, from Saint-George hospital in the Lebanese capital. “When there were calls to evacuate and bombings, she left the house, then returned in the evening to sleep”he adds.

On Saturday, the day of the accident, he called her to warn her of a new evacuation order from the Israeli army, which usually precedes strikes, and she left the house. “Then my wife called me to tell me that Céline was in the hospital”he blurted. She was seriously injured by an impact to the head during an attack on her neighborhood of Chiyah.

“The strike was close (…) she was hit in the head”his mother Sanaa Shahroura told AFP.“She dreamed of playing abroad, she said she wanted to be like Ronaldo and Messi (…).

“She wanted to be a star and have everyone talk about her. They killed her dream (…). Now everyone talks about her because she is injured, in a war with which she cannot cope. has nothing to do with it.”

Sanaa Shahroura, mother of Céline Haidar

à l'AFP

“The doctors are following her very closelyhis father told AFP. But the damage is very significant, we hope that it will gradually disappear. We pay the price for something that is not our fault.”he regrets, crying. The head of the BFA team Ziad Saadé explains to AFP that the player is in an artificial coma.

Israel launched a massive bombing campaign and a ground offensive in Lebanon against pro-Iranian Hezbollah at the end of September. Since the start, in October 2023, of cross-border exchanges of fire in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel, more than 3,540 people have been killed, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, the vast majority since the escalation in september.