A Birthday Becomes a Day of Survival as Israeli Airstrikes Hit Beirut

Israeli airstrikes in Beirut killed 15, injured 63, and displaced many, including Aya, a six-year-old whose home was destroyed hours before her birthday

Aya turned six a few days ago. Her father, Mohammed, promised her a big party and Saturday was to be the big day. He bought her a long pink tulle dress to match the occasion, decorated with discreet rhinestones that would make Aya, the apple of his eye, shine. 

But now, that dress hangs on the only standing wall in their house. 

Early Saturday morning, while Aya was sleeping with the rest of her family, six bunker-busting bombs launched by the Israeli military (IDF) broke into the heart of Beirut and woke the entire city. Eight-story buildings of Batsa were reduced to rubble, including the Qassems’, hours before Aya’s birthday party began. Aya had her short life saved, but she spent her big day in the hospital waiting for her grandmother, her aunt, and her two-year-old cousin to have the same luck. 

What does [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu need from a six-year-old girl?

Unsure of what to do, Mohammed, brand new dress in hand, watches his nephew pull his belongings out of the rubble. “Our cell phones, our money, our ID cards are there,” he told The Media Line. But they are nowhere to be found. Instead, the dress matches Aya’s pristine pink jacket, a pair of Minnie Mouse pajamas, red sneakers, and a little pink and silver handbag. Mohammed piles up all the treasures found in the gray dust in his hands. “What does [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu need from a six-year-old girl?” he asked himself as his nephew pulled his grandmother’s blood-stained pillow.

There was no one here that we didn’t know. No one from Hezbollah. My sister lived here, my grandfather here, my cousin here.

Israeli media reported that the target of the attack was senior Hezbollah official Mohammed Haydar. “There was no one here that we didn’t know,” said Mariam, a resident who has lost her home. “No one from Hezbollah,” she specified to The Media Line. To prove it, she points out: “My sister lived here, my grandfather here, my cousin here.” Mariam pointed to places, houses, and apartments that no longer exist, just rubble. 

People excavate for those trapped under rubble caused by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. (Taylor Thomas/The Media Line)

Under all of them, she found her husband this morning. “He was sleeping, sleeping!” she screamed to a sky full of smoke. More than ten hours have passed since the impact, and the emergency services are still looking for around 30 missing people.

We are not with the resistance [the name by which the militia-political party Hezbollah is known] here. We all knew each other, and we were lifelong neighbors.

For the moment, there are 15 deaths, and 63 people have been injured. According to Hezbollah deputy Amin Sherri, none of the group’s leaders were in the attacked building, while Haydar’s fate remains uncertain. “We are not with the resistance [the name by which the militia-political party Hezbollah is known] here. We all knew each other, and we were lifelong neighbors,” Mohammed said.

Although the bunker-busting bombs caused an entire eight-story residential building to collapse, leaving only a vast smoking crater, the unannounced attack destroyed entire houses, vehicles, and windows of apartments further away. Its impact reverberated throughout the Lebanese capital in the early hours of dawn.

If [the Israelis] don’t want us to be with the resistance, why are they doing this? This will only make us be with the resistance; if they were to kill my daughter Aya, do not doubt that I would join them.

“If [the Israelis] don’t want us to be with the resistance, why are they doing this?” Mohammed said. “This will only make us be with the resistance; if they were to kill my daughter Aya, do not doubt that I would join them,” he said confidently. Since the start of the Israeli escalation in Lebanon on September 23, which has already killed 3,000 people in just a few weeks, the attacks have been concentrated in southern and eastern Lebanon. 

In the southern suburbs of the capital, practically empty of civilians, Israeli bombings are daily, if not hourly, daily. But the attacks in the heart of Beirut can still be counted on the fingers of both hands. The central district of Basta, with a large working population and famous for its antique shops, already suffered Israeli violence just over a month ago. Just 50 meters away from the place attacked this Saturday, another bombing killed 22 people and injured 117 on October 10th. 

This week alone, four different attacks have hit different areas of Beirut far from the southern suburbs in a clear escalation of Israeli brutality. This same Saturday, Dahiyeh–the Arabic name for the southern suburbs – suffered Israeli bombs. In the port city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, Israeli drones killed two Palestinian fishermen. The Ministry of Health has reported “an infinite number of victims in the Baalbek-Hermel region” in the east of the country: 24 dead “and body parts” and 45 people injured.

On the other side of the contested border, Israelis have also been suffering constant attacks from Hezbollah for more than a year. Throughout this period of time, some 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by the shelling in northern Israel and the fighting in southern Lebanon. Usually, after an assassination of a high-ranking Hezbollah official, the militia increases its violence towards Israeli territory with the launch of rockets and drones.

Israelis hold their breaths as Israeli security officials told Saudi news outlet Al-Hadath that the attempt to assassinate Hezbollah’s chief of operations, Mohammed Haidar, failed.

The intensification of attacks in Lebanon does not mean any respite for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the Israeli army has killed 120 Palestinians across the enclave in the past 48 hours and over 44,000 Palestinians since the start of the war. From Basta, they watch with fear as the reality of the past year in Gaza ends up settling in their neighborhood as well.

After looking with red eyes at the remains of his house, Mohammed still doesn’t understand. Driven by rage and helplessness, he throws the miraculously immaculate pink dress into the smoking crater. It was for Aya, for her big day. One that will never be.

Aya’s pink dress in the crater left by Israeli airstrikes in Beirut, Lebanon. (Taylor Thomas/The Media Line)