Trapped under rubble for 14 hours after Israeli strike, a Lebanese child recovers

After an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon killed several members of Ali Khalifa's family and left him buried under rubble for 14 hours, rescuers did not expect to find the two-year-old Lebanese boy alive.

With his hand amputated and his body hooked up to a respirator in a hospital bed too big for him, “Ali is the only survivor of his  family,” Hussein Khalifa, his father's uncle, told AFP.

The boy's parents, sister and two grandmothers were all killed in this strike on Oct. 29, a few weeks after the intensification of Israeli military operations against the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

The attack in Sarafand, some 15 kilometers south of the coastal city of Saida, leveled an apartment complex and killed 15 people, including several members of the Khalifa family.

“Rescue workers had almost given up hope of finding survivors under the rubble,” said Khalifa from Saida's hospital.

But “Ali appeared among the debris in the bulldozer bucket when we all thought he was dead ... He emerged from the rubble, barely breathing, after 14 hours” under the debris.

Israel has been engaged in open warfare against Hezbollah since late September, in parallel with its war against Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil.

Since Sept. 23, the escalating war has claimed more than 2,600 lives in Lebanon, according to figures from the Health Ministry.

'Psychological scars'

At the Saida hospital where Ali was rushed, the signs of the attack's violence are visible everywhere.

The young boy, in an induced coma following the amputation of his right hand, must undergo surgery in Beirut before a prosthesis can be fitted.

“We're waiting for operations to be completed before waking him up,” confided Hussein Khalifa.

Other relatives are also fighting for their lives after the Sarafand strike.

One of Khalifa's nieces, 32-year-old Zainab, was trapped under the rubble for two hours before being rescued and transferred to the nearest hospital. It was there that she learned that her parents, husband and three children, aged between three and seven, had all been killed. The strike severely wounded her, leaving her with only one eye.

Zainab “didn't hear the sound of the missiles raining down on her family's house,” recounted her uncle, “she only saw darkness and heard deafening screams.”

Ali Alaa Eddine, the doctor in charge of her care, explained that “Zainab's psychological scars are far more significant than her physical wounds.”

He is also treating Zainab's sister, Fatima, 30, who was injured in the same attack. Both suffered injuries “all over their bodies, with broken feet and lung damage,” said the doctor.

From a medical point of view, he continued, “the cases of Zainab and Fatima are not among the most difficult we have faced during the war, but they are the most serious on a psychological and human level.”