Reda Hijazi stands in front of the rubble of what was once a cafe he owned on April 22, 2026. Israel destroyed the cafe along with a number of other residential buildings in a series of air strikes on Sour, just minutes before the cease-fire with Hezbollah went into effect. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient Today)
SOUTH LEBANON — Another body has been recovered from beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings which Israel targeted in Sour with a series of strikes a mere three minutes before the truce began on April 17.
Reda Hijazi, one of the people who miraculously survived the impact of the strike, identified the body of his brother Mohammad after having searched for him relentlessly for five days. He was at his café when he heard that a body had just been pulled from the rubble of a building.
Reda spoke to our reporter Emmanuel Haddad at Jabal Amel Hospital, where the body had been taken to a temporary mortuary. “I recognized him by his jacket; it was stained with blood,” said the devastated 50-year-old from outside the hospital.
Five members of Reda's family were killed in this series of strikes, which flattened ten buildings, killed nearly thirty people, and injured dozens of others. According to the Sour municipality, one person is still missing.
