‘My future is gone’: Lebanese loses entire family in Israeli attack moments before truce in the country

Smoke in Nabatieh, Lebanon, after an attack by Israel, on April 16, 2026. Reuters The family of Hassan Abu Khalil miraculously survived six weeks of war in southern Lebanon, but the tragedy occurred in the last minutes before a ceasefire came into force. An Israeli attack late on Thursday (16) killed 13 of his relatives, leaving him the only survivor. Abu Khalil, 36, left to see friends just before midnight, when a U.S.-brokered truce between Lebanon and Israel was supposed to halt fighting between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. ✅ Follow g1’s international news channel on WhatsApp LIVE: Follow the latest news from the war in the Middle East “I heard a very strong attack and when I went back to the neighborhood I found out that this had happened,” Abu Khalil told Reuters on Friday, as he watched a bulldozer remove mountains of pulverized concrete from what was once his home in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. “In that building, more than 13 members of my family are missing under the rubble. And then, Israel? Just before the ceasefire, one massacre after another against us,” he said. Later on Friday, Lebanon’s state news agency said rescuers had recovered 13 bodies and pulled 35 injured survivors from the ruins of the building that was hit the night before. The agency reported that 15 other people were not found. The Israeli military did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on the attack. In a statement issued just minutes before the ceasefire took effect, the Israeli military said its attacks over the previous 24 hours had targeted Hezbollah militants, headquarters and rocket launchers. Lebanon’s Health Ministry reported that 2,294 people were killed between March 2 and Thursday, when the ceasefire came into effect. The death toll includes 177 children and 274 women. The number of fighters killed is unclear. Hezbollah has not released the death toll of its fighters. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on March 27 that more than 400 had been killed since March 2. Since then, Hezbollah missile fire has killed two civilians in Israel, and 13 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the military campaign against the Iran-backed group in Lebanon. In the final hours before the ceasefire, Hezbollah fired multiple rocket barrages at Israeli villages and towns across the border, setting off air raid sirens and sending people fleeing to shelters. At least two people were injured, the Israeli ambulance service said. ‘I’m afraid to go home’: Brazilian woman in Lebanon reports climate of insecurity with ceasefire ‘If I die, I want to die with my daughter’: Under bombs, Brazilians in Lebanon hurriedly leave homes and take shelter wherever they can ‘My future is gone’ On Friday, thousands of Lebanese passed through Tire on their way to their villages in the south. They crossed an earthen barrier that Lebanese soldiers erected over the ruins of a bridge destroyed by Israel on Thursday. Many were relieved to return to their villages in southern Lebanon, even though they were destroyed after Israel’s attacks. But Abu Khalil spent the first day of the ceasefire in a haze of despair, unable to eat or sleep. He stood wringing his hands beside an excavator working in the ruins, his eyes fixed on the gaping hole that rescuers were searching for. “Since the attack, I’ve been here and I haven’t gone anywhere. Every time they take someone out, we run to see what happened, who it is – my friend who I grew up with, my friend’s mother, my friend’s father,” Abu Khalil said. He said he was living in the UK but returned to Lebanon to be with his family. “Who’s left? There’s no one left. I wish I’d never gone out for that coffee and stayed with them,” he said. “My future is gone here. This was my life, this was my family – now what? What else is there after this?”

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