Israeli attack kills 4 of journalist’s relatives in Lebanon

As Lebanon is seemingly being dragged into the conflict with Hamas and Israel, 4 family members of a Lebanese journalist were killed by an Israeli attack on November 5, reports Middle East Eye. 

An Israeli strike in the country’s south killed four of journalist Samir Ayoub’s relatives, three of Ayoub’s grandchildren as well as their grandmother. 

The attack reportedly struck the radio correspondent’s car in Aynata, a village roughly 10 kilometres away from the border with Israel. 

Clashes between Iran-backed Lebanese militants Hezbollah and Israel have caused the displacement of 29,000 Lebanese people living near the Israeli border. 

READ: Lebanon ill-prepared for war with Israel

Hezbollah and Hamas could form an alliance to combat Israel who are generously backed militarily by many in the West, most notably the US. 

Of the 81 killed in cross-border clashes since October 7, 59 of them were Hezbollah members. 

The distressed Ayoub told the press,“Their mother was screaming, ‘I want my children!’ And the kids were burning in the car in front of her, and there is no one, what are you going to do,” . 

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah unleashed a threat to Israel on November 3 noting that the group would hit back at any civilian deaths. 

Regarding the attack on November 5, Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati affirmed that it was an “abhorrent crime committed by the Israeli enemy”. 

Mikati has previously called for Israeli provocations to stop adding that Lebanon was “in the eye of the storm”. 

Middle East Eye