Israeli strike kills 1-year-old girl in south Lebanon during funeral

A 1.5-year-old girl died when an Israeli strike hit her family home in Srifa, in south Lebanon, as relatives had returned to the village to bury another family member. The child, Taleen Saeed, was killed on Wednesday, April 8, while her 7-year-old sister, Aline Saeed, survived with injuries and bloodied bandages.

By Sunday, April 12, the Saeed family was in Tyre collecting the bodies of four relatives killed in the strike, a grim procession that laid bare how quickly civilian life in Lebanon has been overtaken by the war. Nasser Hussein Saeed called the attack a “war crime” as the family mourned inside a mosque.

The strike landed on the first day of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire that many in Lebanon had hoped would extend to their front line as well. Instead, the latest wave of violence on April 8 killed more than 350 people across Lebanon, according to the figures cited by Reuters, and pushed the broader death toll in the country beyond 2,000, including 165 children and nearly 250 women.

The human cost has continued to climb. Lebanon’s Ministry of Health put the toll at 1,953 killed and 6,303 injured as of April 11. The United Nations said Israel carried out more than 100 airstrikes in about 10 minutes on April 8, overwhelming hospitals and driving urgent appeals for blood donations. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, condemned the attacks and said, “This cannot go on. Neither side can shoot or strike their way to victory.”

The strike in Srifa came as Lebanon and Israel were already heading toward another political fault line. Two days later, on April 10, an Israeli strike hit the Lebanese state security headquarters in Nabatiyeh and killed at least 13 officers, deepening anger ahead of direct talks scheduled to begin Tuesday, April 14, in Washington at the ambassadorial level. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam postponed a planned trip to Washington and said a truce must come before negotiations. Israel says the talks will focus on Hezbollah’s disarmament and will not lead to a ceasefire, a position that now faces the mounting reality of funerals, shattered homes and children buried in the crossfire.