Ahmad Khadra lists the names of the martyrs of the massacre that occurred on September 23 when the Ghraib family’s home in Haouch, Tyre, was targeted:

“Ahmad Ghraib, a 63-year-old retired Lebanese Army lieutenant colonel from the town of Shaqra.

Hanan Sabra Ghraib, a 52-year-old from Haouch, Tyre District.

Rasha Ahmad Ghraib, a 24-year-old dentistry student in her fourth year at the Lebanese University.

Maya Ahmad Ghraib, a 23-year-old architect [Khadra’s fiancé].

Nour Ahmad Ghraib, a 20-year-old student at the Lebanese International University.”

The only surviving family member is Reda, who lives abroad.

“God grant him endurance,” says Umm Abbas, a relative of the family. She adds, “The family would get together every Saturday. I flip through their pictures and think, next Friday Ahmad’s family won’t be with us. We lost an entire family in one moment”. “Reda has not been able to come. It’s better for him to stay away, anyway, as he is all we have left to remember the family by,” she laments.

 

The Ghraib family is not the only family that Israel has eradicated in one fell swoop. Many families have been wiped out in the south, Beqaa, and Beirut’s Dahieh. However, it may be the first of many family massacres to occur after the expansion of Israel’s attacks. We now know that at 12:09 PM on September 23, the family received a phone call from the Israeli enemy via the landline telling them to evacuate because the house was to be bombed. When the strike came at 12:19, contact with the family was lost. This we learned from Khadra, Maya’s fiancé. He tells the Legal Agenda, “They left them no time. They threatened them and then targeted them minutes later. They struck the home with three missiles. They targeted it directly, as shown in the pictures. The four-story building didn’t fall. Only their apartment was targeted. They targeted a house of civilians who were supposed to be safe”.

After listing the names of the martyrs, Khadra asks, “Who are they? Are they not civilians? Ask anyone who knows them. Ask their universities, their friends, the entire neighborhood. Israel wants to expel us from our land and kill us. It says it warns civilians, but just minutes elapsed between the warning and the strike on the home”.

 

The strike killed not only the family but also their neighbor, Marwa al-Rizz al-Zain, and an Ethiopian worker. “Elderly Marwa came to them to lift her spirits after Israel began terrorizing the people and threatening them with an expansion of the aggression. So her fate was martyrdom, just like the Ethiopian worker,” he says.

 

Khadra narrates what happened to the family and repeats, “I can’t believe I’m talking about Maya’s death. I should be talking about our home and our long-awaited day,” i.e. the day of his and Maya’s wedding scheduled for this month. The wedding was going to be limited to family if the Israeli attacks were still going on or a large wedding if they had ended. “We were dreaming of this day and the picture that would hang in the middle of the home. We dreamed of a family. We planned to travel to Malaysia – that’s what Maya wanted. Yes, we dream, and we love life, but Israel stole our dreams. Instead of becoming my bride, she became the ‘Bride of the South’ – as they dubbed her on social media – and departed with her family, together as they always were,” he says.

On September 25, Khadra farewelled his fiancée and her family when they were laid to rest in the village’s cemetery: “Yesterday, I buried five. Yesterday, I buried a piece of my heart. I carried my fiancée on my shoulders. I carried my heart, my soul, and my whole world. I put her under the soil, and my world ended. My one consolation is that she will be watching over me, she and the martyrs killed by Israel”. He turns toward us and adds, “Talk about them, this whole family consisting of a father, Ahmad, who was loved by those around him, a mother, Hanan, who worked hard to raise her children, Rasha, who loved life, quiet Maya, and beautiful and pampered Nour. They are not numbers but a family that was killed in its entirety”.

Surviving Reda will go on alone. A video of the whole family celebrating his birthday via a video call has circulated. “This was the last time they would celebrate your birthday,” the caption reads.

 

This article is an edited translation from Arabic.