Pope Leo XIV meets the two survivors of the Bint Jbeil massacre

During his three-day papal trip to Lebanon, which ended Wednesday, Pope Leo XIV met with Amani Bazzi and her daughter Acil Charara, the only survivors of an Israeli strike in Bint Jbeil, according to press reports confirmed to L’Orient-Le Jour by a family member who wished to remain anonymous.

According to the source, the meeting was organized after Acil wrote a letter to the pontiff in which she expressed hope that he would help bring attention to the tragedy that decimated her family.

The meeting lasted five minutes, the source added, specifying that the two women’s health remains very fragile and that they are currently declining all media requests since news of their meeting with the pope became public.

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Israel kills 5, including 3 children, in deadly Bint Jbeil attack

According to TV show producer and host Ricardo Karam, who shared details of the meeting on his Instagram account, Acil had been allowed to leave the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where she is still under care, for a few hours for this meeting, which took place in Harissa, Kesrouan, during one of Leo XIV’s stops in Lebanon. The head of the Catholic Church was expected on Dec. 1 at the site to meet clergy at the Our Lady of Lebanon shrine as part of his visit.

'A short and simple moment'

“Acil gave the pope a message she had written with the handwriting of pain and childhood, and the Holy Father promised her he would read it and respond when circumstances allowed. A short and simple moment, but one that brought more light than all the speeches,” Karam also said, without giving further concrete details about their conversation. He also published a photo of the two women in Harissa.

Bazzi and her thirteen-year-old daughter were both severely wounded by a missile launched by a drone, which targeted a Hezbollah member on a motorcycle who was near the car carrying them at the time of the strike.

The strike targeted Bazzi’s family car while it was stopped to greet a relative of her husband passing by on a motorcycle, who was also killed.

The toll of this massacre: five dead, including Bazzi’s husband and Acil’s father, Chadi Charara, a 46-year-old car salesman; their daughter and Acil’s sister Céline, 10; and 19-month-old twins Hadi and Cylan.

An AFP photographer saw the shell of the vehicle, which, according to Bazzi, contained the twins’ stroller, food given by her mother, and shoes they had just bought for little Hadi.