Lebanese families of Israeli strike victims in Beirut seek justice
Standing before their devastated building in central Beirut, childhood neighbours Wael Sabbagh and Ghida Krisht vow to fight for justice after an Israeli strike killed their family members.
On 8 April, hours after a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran, Israel launched a massive wave of air strikes across Lebanon, including at the heart of the capital, killing more than 350 people.
Sabbagh's mother and brother, and Krisht's parents and another relative, were killed in a strike on a building in central Beirut's affluent Tallet al-Khayat district, on what Lebanese now refer to as Black Wednesday.
Their parents had lived there for decades and thought they would be safe.
"I lost my mother, my brother, my home, my childhood," said Sabbagh, 52, a businessman who now lives in Mexico.
Through images online, he came to the heart-wrenching realisation that his family's building had been struck.
"Nine people were killed in the building... It gets talked about as if they were just numbers, but they were our loved ones," he said.
Standing before their devastated building in central Beirut, childhood neighbours Wael Sabbagh and Ghida Krisht vow to fight for justice after an Israeli strike killed their family members. pic.twitter.com/6xaT4t3TUl
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 21, 2026