In Lebanon, buried 14 hours after an Israeli strike, a 2-year-old boy recovers

MIDDLE EAST – After an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon which killed several members of his family and left him buried under rubble for 14 hours, rescuers did not expect to find Ali Khalifa, a Lebanese boy two years alive.

Now a hand amputee, his body connected to a respirator in a hospital bed too big for him, “Ali is the only survivor of his (small) family”tells AFP Houssein Khalifa, his father's uncle. The boy's parents, sister and two grandmothers all died in this strike carried out on October 29, a few weeks after the intensification of Israeli military operations against the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

The attack in Sarafand, some 15 kilometers south of the coastal town of Saida, razed an apartment complex and left 15 people dead, including several members of the Khalifa family.

“Rescuers had almost given up hope of finding survivors under the rubble”testifies Houssein Khalifa from Saïda hospital. But “Ali appeared among the debris in the bulldozer bucket when we all thought he was dead (…) He emerged from the rubble, barely breathing, after 2 p.m.” under the debris, he whispers.

Israel has been at open war against Hezbollah since the end of September, alongside its war against Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil. Since September 23, the escalation of the conflict has left more than 2,600 dead in Lebanon, according to figures from the Ministry of Health.

“Psychological scars”

At the Saida hospital where Ali was rushed, signs of the violence of the attack are visible everywhere. The boy, plunged into an artificial coma after the amputation of his right hand, must undergo surgery in Beirut before fitting a prosthesis.

“We are waiting for the end of the operations before waking him up”confides Houssein Khalifa. Other relatives are also struggling for survival after the Sarafand strike.

One of Houssein Khalifa's nieces, Zainab, 32, was trapped under the rubble for two hours before being rescued and transferred to the nearest hospital. It was there that she learned that her parents, husband and three children, aged three to seven, had all been killed. The strike seriously injured her, leaving her with only one eye.

Ali Alaa El-Din, doctor in charge of his follow-up, explains that “Zainab’s psychological scars are far greater than her physical injuries”.

He also treats Zainab's sister, Fatima, 30, injured in the same attack. Both suffered injuries “all over the body, with fractures to the feet and lung damage”says the doctor.

From a medical point of view, he continues, “The cases of Zainab and Fatima are not among the most difficult we faced during the war, but they are the most serious on a psychological and human level”.

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