A Lebanese Family Planning for a Daughter's Wedding is Killed in an Israeli Strike on Their Home

A photo of Reda Gharib’s family, from left: Racha, Nour, Hanan, and Maya Gharib who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their house in al- Housh, in the southern town of Tyre, on September 23 at the onset of the Israeli-Hezbollah war. (AP)
A photo of Reda Gharib’s family, from left: Racha, Nour, Hanan, and Maya Gharib who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their house in al- Housh, in the southern town of Tyre, on September 23 at the onset of the Israeli-Hezbollah war. (AP)
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A Lebanese Family Planning for a Daughter's Wedding is Killed in an Israeli Strike on Their Home

A photo of Reda Gharib’s family, from left: Racha, Nour, Hanan, and Maya Gharib who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their house in al- Housh, in the southern town of Tyre, on September 23 at the onset of the Israeli-Hezbollah war. (AP)
A photo of Reda Gharib’s family, from left: Racha, Nour, Hanan, and Maya Gharib who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their house in al- Housh, in the southern town of Tyre, on September 23 at the onset of the Israeli-Hezbollah war. (AP)

The family WhatsApp group chat buzzed with constant messages. Israel was escalating its airstrikes on villages and towns in southern Lebanon. Everyone was glued to the news.
Reda Gharib woke up uncharacteristically early that day, Sept. 23. Living a continent away in Senegal, he scrolled through videos and pictures shared by his sisters and aunts of explosions around their neighborhood in Tyre, Lebanon’s ancient coastal city.
His aunts decided to leave for Beirut. His father, mother and three sisters had no such plans, The Associated Press reported.
Then his father announced to the group that he had received a call from the Israeli military to evacuate or risk their lives. After that, the chat fell silent. Ten minutes later, Gharib called his father. There was no answer.
The Gharibs’ apartment had been directly hit by an Israeli airstrike. The family had no time to get out. Gharib’s father, Ahmed, a retired Lebanese army officer, his mother, Hanan, and his three sisters were all killed.
“The whole apartment was gone. It is back to bare bones. As if there was nothing there,” said Gharib, speaking from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, where he has been living since 2020.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hezbollah site hiding rocket launchers and missiles.
Gharib said his family had no connection to Hezbollah. The direct hit gutted their apartment, while those above and below suffered only damage, suggesting a specific part of the building was targeted. Gharib said it was his family's home.
The strike was one of more than 1,600 Israel said it carried out on Sept. 23, the first day of an intensified bombardment of Lebanon it has waged for the past month. More than 500 people were killed that day, a casualty figure not observed in Gaza on a single day until the second week, said Emily Tripp, director of London-based Airwars, a conflict monitoring group.
Israel has vowed to cripple Hezbollah to put an end to more than a year of cross-border fire by the Iranian-backed militant group that began the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered the war in Gaza. It says its strikes are targeting Hezbollah’s members and infrastructure. But there are also hundreds of civilians among the more than 2,000 people killed in the bombardment over the past month — often entire families killed in their homes.
Since then, the street where the Gharib family lived — an area of shops, residential buildings and offices of international agencies in Tyre’s al-Housh district — has been battered with repeated airstrikes and is now deserted.
Gharib, 27, a pilot and entrepreneur, moved to Senegal in search of a better future but always planned to return to Lebanon to start a family.
He was close to his three sisters, the keeper of their secrets and best friend, he said. Growing up, their father was often away, so he and his mother took charge of family affairs.
The last time he visited his family was in May 2023, when his sister Maya, an engineering student, got engaged. She had planned to marry on Oct. 12. But as tensions with Israel grew in September, Gharib's plans to come home for the wedding were uncertain. She told him she would put it off until he could get there.
After the strike, her fiancé, also an army officer, found her body and those of the rest of her family in a hospital morgue in Tyre.
“She was not destined to have her wedding. We paraded her as a bride to paradise instead,” Gharib said. On the day the wedding was to have taken place he posted pictures of his sister, including her wedding dress.
His sister Racha, 24, was about to graduate as a dentist and planned to open her own clinic. “She loved life,” he said.
His youngest sister, Nour, 20, was studying to be a dietitian and prepping to be a personal trainer. Gharib called her the “laughter of the house.”
There is nothing left of his family now except for a few pictures on his phone and on social media posts.
“I am so hurt. But I know the hurt will be hardest when I come to Lebanon,” Gharib said. “Not even a picture of them remains hanging on the walls. Their clothes are not there. Their smell is no longer in the house. The house is totally gone."
"They took my family and the memories of them.”



Lebanon’s Berri: Resolution 1701 Stands Unchanged

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Berri: Resolution 1701 Stands Unchanged

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets with US envoy Amos Hochstein during his recent visit to Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon is monitoring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to US President Joe Biden’s push for a ceasefire in southern Lebanon.

Biden has sent advisors Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk to Tel Aviv to discuss the matter with Netanyahu, marking what Lebanese officials see as the last chance for progress before the US presidential election on Nov. 5.

Lebanese leaders, including Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, are cautious about predicting results.

Mikati did not comment after his recent meetings with US advisors.

However, Berri highlighted Lebanon’s prior agreement with Hochstein to a ceasefire, deploying the Lebanese army in the south, and enforcing UN Resolution 1701.

Berri reaffirmed that Lebanon won’t alter these terms, saying, “What’s agreed is agreed; Resolution 1701 stands unchanged.”

The speaker clarified that Lebanon has fulfilled its commitments and is now waiting for Netanyahu’s response, noting that Lebanon is ready to implement the ceasefire if Hochstein can secure Netanyahu’s agreement.

“The ball is now in Netanyahu’s court,” Berri said, pointing out that Netanyahu has previously agreed to and then withdrawn from ceasefire deals.

According to sources, Hezbollah is fully behind Berri’s mandate for a ceasefire.

Hezbollah’s newly appointed Secretary-General, Sheikh Naim Qassem, recently confirmed the party’s support.

Qassem is closely following developments with the party’s military leadership, while Hezbollah’s MPs continue discussions with other blocs to clarify their position.

Lebanese sources stressed that reaching a ceasefire is critical and must happen as soon as possible, asserting that Netanyahu should not leverage the situation in Gaza as a pretext to avoid a southern ceasefire.

As Biden’s envoys prepare to meet with Netanyahu, Lebanese officials remain focused on whether this effort will result in an agreement.

The ongoing clashes near the southern Lebanese town of Khiam, where Hezbollah is actively resisting Israeli advances, have intensified the situation, making the outcome of these discussions crucial.