Bangladeshi worker killed in Israeli airstrike on Beirut

A Bangladeshi worker was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka announced on Sunday, as Israeli bombings complicate efforts to repatriate citizens.

Mohammad Nizam, 31, was killed Saturday afternoon in an airstrike while stopping at a coffee shop on his way to work in Beirut, said Bangladesh’s ambassador to Lebanon, Javed Tanveer Khan, in a statement.

The ambassador did not provide further details on the strike that killed Mohammad Nizam, but only one airstrike targeted Beirut’s southern suburb on Saturday afternoon, in the Galerie Semaan area of Hadath. The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that the bombardment, which occurred without prior warning in broad daylight, resulted in one death.

The victim had lived in Beirut for over a decade

The victim’s brother, Mohammad Jalaluddine, stated that his younger brother Nizam had been living in Beirut for more than ten years and was not among the nearly 1,800 Bangladeshis who had registered for evacuation. ''We want to bury him in our ancestral village and are now waiting for the government’s response,'' Jalaluddine told AFP.

Senior Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry Official Shah Mohammad Tanvir Monsur noted the difficulty in arranging flights to Beirut. ''Due to the ongoing war, there are almost no flights between Lebanon and Bangladesh,” Monsur said. ''It is becoming increasingly difficult to repatriate our citizens who have registered to return home.''

The ministry estimates that between 70,000 and 100,000 of its nationals work in Lebanon, mainly as laborers or domestic workers. Initial flights organized by Dhaka’s government with the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration brought several Bangladeshis back from Beirut last month.

Israel significantly escalated its air campaign against the Lebanese group Hezbollah on Sept. 23, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. The Israeli state has since launched a ground offensive aimed at pushing the group back from its northern border.

The conflict has claimed at least 1,930 lives in Lebanon since hostilities began on Sept. 23, according to an AFP tally based on Health Ministry figures, though the true number is likely higher due to data gaps. The Israeli army reported that 38 of its soldiers have been killed in the Lebanon campaign since the start of ground operations on Sept. 30.

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.

Un travailleur bangladais tué dans une frappe israélienne sur la banlieue sud de Beyrouth