Families killed in Khiam: Israel refused to continue the search for the missing

The search which began on Sunday in Wata el-Khiam, in South Lebanon, to extract the remains of members of two families killed in the neighborhood during the Israeli offensive on Khiam could not continue on Monday, announced the president of the municipality of Wazzani, where the victims came from.

These two families, made up of 20 people, as well as a Syrian worker who was with them, had been missing since last Monday, against the backdrop of the Israeli army’s ground offensive against Khiam. On Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross (CRL), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and residents were able to go to the scene, while the Israeli army was forced to withdraw at the end of the week, after several days of violent fighting. On site, it was confirmed that the 21 missing people, from the neighboring villages of Wazzani and Aïn el-Arab, including children, had been killed in a strike on the buildings in which they were in Wata el-Khiam.

Three remains of children under the rubble

Contacted by L’OILMayor Ahmed al-Mohammad, who is related to both families, said that “so far, only three children, aged 6 months to five years, and their 25-year-old mother, as well as one other person have been extracted from under the rubble,” he says. “The mother and children are part of the Mohammad family. The father, for his part, remains missing,” he continues, adding that the victims were directly buried in Aïn Arab. Other children are among the others missing, according to this source, which does not give further details.

According to him, the Lebanese Red Cross was to continue its search on Monday, but “Israel refused.” The CRL normally coordinates its movements in southern Lebanon with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the ICRC, which are in contact with the Israeli army. “They were not able to complete their operations the day before because the equipment was not suitable,” underlines the mayor.

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He explains that these two families had lived in Wata el-Khiam for more than 20 years, because the territory made it possible to raise their livestock of more than 1,000 cows and sheep. They had tried to leave the place at the end of September and go to Khan, in the Hasbaya caza, but “had to return ten days before the start of the Israeli offensive (on Khiam, editor’s note) and the intensification of airstrikes because their breeding was much too imposing and that bothered the villagers.”

The mayor also emphasizes that the 40 other families present in the village had left the locality in time.