Lebanon: Missile strikes kill entire families in country's deadliest week since 2006
On Wednesday, another 50 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes, as ITV News' International Editor Emma Murphy reports
Words by Olivia Mustafa, ITV News Producer, with newsgathering by Roohi Hasan
Batoul Dabaja and her family lived in the village of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon. She worked as a clinical instructor educating frontline health workers, and planned to move with her husband and children to Beirut to study for a second degree.
The family, however, never made it to Lebanon's capital. An Israeli airstrike killed Batoul, along with her husband Bilal Saad and their three children - Fatima Al Zahra, 17, Ali Bilal, 15, and eight-year-old Mohamed Hasan.
Their loved ones are now among many mourning those killed in Lebanon's deadliest week since the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006.
On Wednesday, Lebanon's health minister said Israeli strikes killed 51 people, adding to a death toll of 564 dead after a barrage of missiles on Monday and Tuesday.
Israel has claimed its army are carrying out precise strikes on Hezbollah, and previously warned civilians to "get out of the way".
Aya Hussein Hamden, 24, fled the village of Mays El Jabal with her husband and one-year-old daughter to seek safety in Beirut.
They sheltered with her husband's family in the city's Dahye suburb. On September 20, Aya's husband left to bring food, but returned to find the building struck by a missile.
She was killed, along with their daughter, and her husband's mother and brother.
When Aya's body was recovered, her baby was still in her arms. They were later buried side by side.
"She was always dedicated to help people despite having to take care of her own family," Aya's cousin Fatima said.
Aya worked with children, including scouts, and helped to tutor pupils attending schools in her village.
Elham Kareem Hallal, 57, ran a convenience store in Al Marwaniya, southern Lebanon. Raised an orphan by her sister, she later became a mother of five, and a grandmother of two.
She was at home with her young grandchildren, daughter-in-law and son-in-law when her house was struck by an Israeli missile.
Everyone inside was killed - apart from Elham, who emerged alive, but died in an ambulance.
Her niece, Marwa Hijazi, described her as "modest" and "humble", and a "loving mother of five beautiful children".
Manwella Ftouni, a British doctor originally from Lebanon and working as a radiology registrar in Glasgow, has reached a safe area with her six-month-old child - and told ITV News of what she has witnessed.
"My family and I are traumatised seeing innocent civilians being killed and injured by Israel," she said.
"Whole families have been killed in instances. Ambulances have been bombed," she said.
"In our village the only pharmacist who stayed behind to provide essential medicines has been killed by an airstrike to the pharmacy. A friend of ours was killed en route to the pharmacy to get medicine."
Charitable organisation Islamic Relief has said it condemned "deadly attacks on civilians", and called for world leaders to prevent the crisis being further heightened.
Akram Sadeq Ali, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Lebanon, said: "Civilians and civilian infrastructure such as homes, hospitals and schools must never be a target and must be protected at all times.
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"Young children are among those killed by the bombs, and any further escalation will be absolutely disastrous for civilians."
Medical Aid for Palestinians said it was "alarmed" about the impact of the Israeli military's attacks in Lebanon - including on Palestinian refugees in the country.
A statement from the charity said: "Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, already vulnerable due to overcrowding in refugee camps, poverty, discrimination and marginalisation in Lebanese society, and the denial of their right to return to their homeland, now face even greater risks."
The Israeli military has claimed its attacks are targeted towards militant group Hezbollah.
In a recorded video on Monday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I have a message for the people of Lebanon, Israel’s war is not with you, it's with Hezbollah."“Don’t let Hezbollah endanger Lebanon. Please get out of harm’s way now,” he said, explaining that they can return home “once our operation has finished”.
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