Tragic Loss Just Before the Truce

In a quiet town in southern Lebanon, a man named Hassan Abu Khalil had survived weeks of fighting. He was the only one left after his family was hit by a sudden strike from Israel in the final moments before a ceasefire. The attack took 13 lives and left many others buried under rubble. The fighting in the region had started on March 2, when Israel and a local group called Hezbollah began battling each other. A deal was made to stop the fighting, but it happened just as the strike occurred. Hassan, who is 36 years old, was out for a coffee with friends when he heard the explosion. He returned to find his building damaged and many relatives missing. Rescue workers found 13 bodies and brought out 35 wounded people from the destroyed house. Fifteen more were still missing, according to Lebanon’s news agency. The Israeli army did not reply to questions about the attack.By the time the ceasefire was announced, Lebanon’s health ministry said that 2, 294 people had died in the conflict. Among those were 177 children and 274 women. Thousands of residents left Tyre to go back to villages in the south, even though those places had been destroyed. Hassan spent the first day of peace in a state of shock. He could not eat or sleep, and he kept looking at the ruins where his family had been buried. He said that after seeing each rescue, he felt a deep sorrow and wondered if anyone else was left. He had moved to the United Kingdom but returned to be near his family. Now he asks what will happen next, feeling that his future has vanished.