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Targeted: Lebanon's Deadliest Attack

On a quiet Sunday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed a residential building in Lebanon, killing 73 people. Nawal Al-Maghafi investigates who they were and why the building was hit.

This is the story of one attack, on one building, that took the lives of 73 people and shattered the lives of countless others.

On a quiet Sunday in September, an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment block in the Lebanese village of Ain El Delb. More than 100 people were in the building at the time and 73 were killed - Lebanon’s deadliest attack in the latest escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.

Nawal Al-Maghafi travels to Ain El Delb to investigate this attack and try to understand who was in the building and why it was hit.

We meet with those who survived the ordeal. Hisham Al-Baba was enjoying lunch with his sister’s family when the attack happened. He spent more than seven hours trapped under rubble before rescuers pulled him free. His sister, Denise, was not so lucky; she was killed along with her husband and two children.

Batoul Hemadi, like many others, had fled intense fighting in the south of Lebanon, seeking shelter with family in Ain El Delb. Eight members of her family were killed in the attack, including her four-year-old daughter Hawraa.

But across six floors and 17 apartments, we found countless stories of pain and loss. ´óÏó´«Ã½ Eye reconstructed the building, to better understand who was in each apartment that day. Through a comprehensive exploration of the victims and survivors, we try to understand why the building was targeted and why there were so many civilian casualties.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the ´óÏó´«Ã½ that the building was a Hezbollah ‘command centre’. We investigate this claim, finding evidence that six of the men killed that day were affiliated with the group, but no proof which suggests there were Hezbollah commanders in the building.

But alongside these men, at least 60 of the victims were civilians - including 23 children - reflecting a wider pattern of high civilian death tolls in Israeli attacks across Lebanon.

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