Hundreds in Lebanon mourn family of eight killed in Israeli strike

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Lebanon on Sunday to bury at least eight members of one displaced family killed when an Israeli airstrike hit the building where they had been sheltering. Among the dead was a 6-month-old infant, relatives said, turning one strike into a funeral that drew a crowd far beyond the immediate family and underscored how the fighting has reached deep into civilian life.

The family was killed a day earlier, on Saturday, May 9, when the strike hit without advance warning, according to relatives. The image of a single household wiped out in one blast has become a grim marker of the war’s widening toll, as Israeli attacks on Lebanon intensified sharply since Thursday and further strained an already fragile truce in the conflict with Hezbollah.

The broader day of violence was among the deadliest in recent weeks. Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said Israeli strikes killed 39 people across the country on Saturday. In Saksakiyeh, at least seven people were killed, including a child, and 15 others were wounded, among them three children. Elsewhere, three Israeli drone strikes on vehicles south of Beirut killed four people, while separate airstrikes in the south killed at least 13, including a man and his 12-year-old daughter.

Lebanese authorities also said two Hezbollah-linked paramedics were killed in strikes in the south, with five others wounded. The dead were tied to the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, adding to the mounting civilian and rescue-worker toll that has accompanied the fighting in south Lebanon and around Beirut.

The deaths have revived painful memories of earlier strikes that killed entire families. In April, an Israeli strike killed 13 relatives of Hassan Abu Khalil shortly before a ceasefire took effect, leaving him the sole survivor. Earlier coverage also documented a strike in the Abbasiyeh area near Tyre that killed family members during a funeral, including infant Taleen Saeed. Together, the incidents point to a pattern that is widening pressure on both sides and raising the risk that the conflict will spread further beyond its current front lines.