Many civilians have died in an IDF attack on Lebanon Village, the BBC learns

Julia Ramadan was scared – the war between Israel and Hezbollah was rising and she was enjoying life when her family was bombed. When he sent word to his brother in a raspy voice from his apartment in Beirut, he encouraged him to join him in Ain El Delb, a small town in southern Lebanon.

“It’s safe here,” He assured her. “Come stay with us until things calm down.”

Earlier that month, Israel intensified air campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in response to a covert rocket attack by an Iranian-based armed group that had killed civilians and tens of thousands more from homes in northern Israel.

Ashraf was convinced that their family’s apartment would be a place to live, so Julia joined him. But the next day, the 29th of September, it was under this war that one of the most frequent attacks was made in Israel. Hit by Israeli missiles, the entire six-story building collapsed, killing 73 people.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say the building was targeted because it was a Hezbollah “terrorist command center” and “eliminated” a Hezbollah commander. I added that “most” of those killed in the strike were “guaranteed to be rations”.

But a BBC Eye investigation confirmed that 68 of the 73 people were killed in the attack and uncovered evidence that showed just six were linked to the Hezbollah militant group. None of those we examined seem to hold a high position. The BBC country service also found that the other 62 were citizens – 23 of them.

Among the dead were babies just a few months old, like Nouh Kobeissi in apartment – 2B. In apartment -1C, school teacher Abeever Hallak was killed alongside her husband and three sons. Three floors above, Amal Hakawati died along with three generations of her family – her husband, children and two grandchildren.

Ashraf and Julia have always been close, sharing everything about each other. He says: “He was like a black box, holding all my secrets.

In the afternoon of September 29, his siblings had just returned home from being cared for by families who had fled the war. Hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon were displaced by the war.

Ashraf was taking a shower, and Julia was sitting in the living room with her father, helping him upload the video to social media. His mother, Janan, was in the kitchen, cleaning.

Then, without warning, they heard a deafening bang. The whole building shook, and a huge cloud of dust and smoke poured into their apartment.

“I shouted, ‘Julia! Julia!,'” Ashraf said.

“He replied, ‘I’m here.’

“I looked at my father, who was having trouble getting up from the couch because of a leg injury, and saw my mother running to the front door.”

Julia’s night was playing out in real life.

“Julia was fussing, crying loudly on the couch. I was trying to calm her down and told her we needed to get out. After that, some attacks.”

Video footage of the strike, shared online and confirmed by the BBC, shows four Israeli missiles flying through the air towards the building. Seconds later, the block falls.

Ashraf, along with many others, was trapped under the rubble. He started to shout, but the only voice he could hear was his father’s, who told him that he was about to hear from Julia and that she was alive. None of them could hear Ashraf’s mother.

Ashraf sent a voice note to friends in the warning zone. Over the next few hours, the damage was done. He can hear the liberators who heal from the ruins – and the residents cry when they find loved ones licked. I pray, “Just look at me and think, God, not Julia. I can’t live this life without Julia.”

Ashraf was finally pulled from the wreckage hours later, with only minor injuries.

He found out that his mother was saved but died in the hospital. Julia still had a yard under the rubble. After a while her father told her Julia’s last words that she wanted her brother.

In November, a cease-fire was agreed between Israel and Hezbollah aimed at ending the conflict. The agreement provides a 60-day deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw from Southern Lebanon and Hezbollah to withdraw its forces and weapons north of the Litani River. As these 26 years and the last January are approaching, we wanted to find out more about the one attack experienced by Israel in Lebanon over the years.

In the apartment below Julia and Ashraf’s, Hawraf and Ali Farses used to be hosted by family members displaced by the war. Among them was the sister of Wawraa batoul, who, like Julia, had arrived the day before – with her husband and two children. They had fled heavy blasts near the Lebanon-Israel border, in areas where Ezbollah has a strong presence.

Batoul says: “We were wondering where to go. “Then I told my husband, ‘Let’s go to Ain El Delb. My sister said that their building was safe and that they couldn’t hear any bombs nearby.'”

Batoul’s husband Mohammed Fares was killed in the attack on Ain El Delb. The pillar fell to Batoul and her children. He says no – who answered his calls for help. He was finally able to lift it on his own, but his four-year-old daughter Hawraa was badly crushed. Miraculously, her child Malak survived.

Three floors below Batroul Heath Revise and Moheyaldeen Al-Baba. That Sunday, Denise had invited her brother Hisham to have lunch.

The impact of the strike was brutal, Hisham said.

“The second arrow hit me on the ground secretly…the whole wall fell on top of me.”

He spent seven hours under the rubble.

“I heard a very long voice. People talking. Screaming again … ‘Cover. End it. This child is still alive. I mean … Oh my God. I thought, I am the last one deep underground. No one will know about me. I will die here. “

When Hisham was finally saved, he found the fate of his nephew waiting to hear if he was alive. He lied to her and told her that he was fine. They found him in his body three days later.

Hisham lost four members of his family – his sister, his son-in-law and their two children. He told us that he had lost his faith and no longer believed in God.

To find out more about who died, we analyzed information from the Lebanese health service, videos, social media posts, and spoke to survivors of the attack.

We particularly wanted to investigate the IDF’s response to the media – Immediately following the attack – that the Apartment Block was a Hezbollah command center. We have asked the IDF repeatedly what constitutes a command center, but they have not specified.

So we started scouring social media, cemeteries, public health records and videos of funerals to find out that those who were killed were those who were attacked by hezbollah.

We could only find evidence that six of the 68 dead we identified were linked to Hezbollah’s military wing.

Hezbollah Memorial Photos of the six men using the label “Mujahid”, which means “Fighter”. The top figures, on the contrary, are called “Qaikwe”, which means “Commander” – and we did not find such labels used by that group to describe those killed.

We asked the idf if the six attackers were the targets of the strike. It did not answer this question.

Another was counted in Hezbollah, which we identified as Batoul’s husband, Mihammed Marses. Butoul told us that her husband, like many other men in southern Lebanon, was a member of the group, although he added that he had never been paid by Hezbollah, or participated in the fighting.

Israel sees Hezbollah as one of its main threats and the group is designated a terrorist organization by Israel, many Western governments and the Gulf Arab Stage.

But alongside its large, well-armed wing, Hezbollah is also an influential political party, holding seats in the Lebanese Parliament. In many parts of the country it is incorporated into the social fabric, providing a network of social services.

In response to our investigation, the IDF says: “IDF strikes on military vessels are subject to the relevant provisions of international law, including taking effective security measures, and are carried out after the expected damage of the law in relation to the military advantage expected to be the strike.”

Earlier it also told the BBC that it had carried out “evacuation procedures” for the strike on Ain El Delb, but everyone we spoke to said we had no warning.

UN experts have raised concerns about Equality and the need for the spirit of Israel is striking in residential buildings in the densely populated areas of Lebanon.

This method of decorating all buildings – which led to significant civilian casualties – has been a recurring feature of Israel’s recent conflict with Hezbollah, which began when the group launched a rocket attack in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Between October 2023 and November 2024, Lebanese authorities say more than 3,960 people were killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces, most of them civilians. At the same time, Israeli officials said at least 47 civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets fired from Southern Lebanon. At least 80 Israeli soldiers were also killed fighting in Southern Lebanon or as a result of rocket attacks in northern Israel.

The missile strike on Ain El Delb is the deadliest Israeli attack on a building in Lebanon in at least 18 years.

The village remains full of its influence. When we visited, more than a month after the strike, the father continued to visit the place every day, hoping for news of his 11-year-old son, whose body was yet to be found.

Ashraf Ramadan, too, returns to dressing in rags, looking for what’s left of the memories his family has built over two decades of living there.

He shows me the door to his closet, still decorated with pictures of soccer players and pop stars he once admired. Then, he pulls a teddy bear from the garbage and tells me that he is always in his bed.

He says: “Nothing I get here will do for the people we have lost.

Additional reporting by Scarlett Barter and Jake Tacchi