(Credit: Background AFP photo shows smoke after Israeli airstrike on Baalbeck on September 2024. Photo of victims provided by Mahmoud Bawary to L'Orient Today. Montage by Céline Bejjani)
"They were having iftar together," Mahmoud Bwary recalls. "A normal evening, like in any family. And then, suddenly, all the life we knew was gone."It was Tuesday, March 17. Mahmoud was in Hazmieh with his wife and children when his phone rang. On the other end, his father was shouting. "Come, Mahmoud… Come see. Your sister is gone." At 9:09 p.m. that evening, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Baalbeck, killing Mahmoud’s sister, Aliaa Bwary, her husband, Mahdi Hajj Hussein, a 42-year-old cafe owner, and their three-year-old son, Ghadi. Their nine-year-old son, Karim, survived. The strike tore through the building, splitting it in two.By 9:30 p.m., word of Aliaa’s death began to spread, though the family was still searching for certainty. "No one knew how to tell us," Mahmoud says....
"They were having iftar together," Mahmoud Bwary recalls. "A normal evening, like in any family. And then, suddenly, all the life we knew was gone."It was Tuesday, March 17. Mahmoud was in Hazmieh with his wife and children when his phone rang. On the other end, his father was shouting. "Come, Mahmoud… Come see. Your sister is gone." At 9:09 p.m. that evening, an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building in Baalbeck, killing Mahmoud’s sister, Aliaa Bwary, her husband, Mahdi Hajj Hussein, a 42-year-old cafe owner, and their three-year-old son, Ghadi. Their nine-year-old son, Karim, survived. The strike tore through the building, splitting it in two.By 9:30 p.m., word of Aliaa’s death began to spread, though the family was still searching for certainty. "No one knew how to tell us," Mahmoud...