A man observes an Israeli strike on the Nabatieh region in southern Lebanon on June 20, 2026. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
SOUTH LEBANON — The bodies of the three people found dead on July 4 near Wadi Slouki, in southern Lebanon, have been identified, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
After DNA analyses conducted at a hospital in Sour, the bodies were identified as belonging to Jawad Bazzi, Hadi Raqqa, both aged 19, and Ali Qashmar, in his forties. All three had gone missing the day after the cease-fire was announced following the signing of the protocol agreement between Iran and the United States on June 15, as they were returning from Beirut to southern Lebanon.
Missing for more than two weeks, their bodies were found by rescuers in an abandoned house in the Wadi Slouki valley, where a fourth person, Mohammad Hassan, who had also gone missing that day, was found alive and seriously injured.
Hassan later explained that he had been targeted by a strike conducted by an Israeli drone while he was riding a motorcycle in the area with Qashmar, near villages where Israeli troops were stationed, occupying more than 600 square kilometers of Lebanese territory in the south of the country.
The families of the deceased were notified of the results of these DNA tests, NNA noted.
