The bodies of six people are still unaccounted for in Jnah’s Hay Al Mokdad district, where a sudden Israeli air strike on the southern Beirut neighbourhood killed 24 people on October 21. Authorities say it is unlikely the bodies are intact and that they are now more likely blackened, shredded bits of skin and organs camouflaged beneath the concrete of what was once a residential block, never to be fully found.

There was no warning before the strike. Residents thought they were safe.

“If we thought there was a one per cent chance of real danger, we’d have left the neighbourhood,” said Hamza Mokdad, 22, in the days after the strike. It was a sentiment shared by numerous survivors. “We’d never expose our families to danger.”

The pattern repeated itself almost daily throughout Lebanon before a ceasefire came into force on November 27. A sudden Israeli strike on a building would take place in an area far from where Israel said its attacks were focused, killing a large number of people - many of them displaced Lebanese seeking refuge.

It happened in Jnah; in northern Lebanon’s Akkar, where 28 people were killed, and in Almat, north of Beirut, where strikes killed 23 people. Thirty-five people were killed in an unexpected air strike in Barja and 15 were killed in Joun. The death toll also rose in Baalchmay, Ain Deleb, Aitou and Aramoun. The list goes on.

Unclear targets sow seeds of mistrust

It was October 21 and the drone was circling lower than usual. It made the residents of Jnah’s lively Hay Al Mokdad quarter uneasy but didn’t stop them from engaging in their nightly rituals. Children played in the streets between the buildings as the adults mingled over coffee and shisha.

At that height, the drone could see everything, survivors of the strike said. 

In an instant, an entire residential block consisting of six buildings fell on top of its residents, killing 24 people and wounding 60. 

Hamza’s cousin, Ali Mokdad, had just pulled into the neighbourhood with his family and parked his pick-up truck. It was 10.40pm.

“The drone’s close buzzing was making me anxious,” he told The National. “I got the feeling something was about to happen so I got my family out of the car seconds before the strike.”

The force of the blast, just metres from Ali’s vehicle, sent the truck flying into his neighbour’s kitchen. But he, his wife, and children survived.

Earlier that evening, the Israeli army issued warnings for five neighbourhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, calling on residents to leave areas within 500 metres of buildings in Haret Hreik, Hadath, Laylaki, Burj Al Barajneh and Ouzai.

Jnah was not on the list, nor within the 500-metre radius. Survivors told The National that many people had recently left the neighbourhoods Israel had issued warnings for, seeking shelter in Lebanon’s largest public hospital across the street from Hay Al Mokdad.

Several rumours circulated amongst residents attempting to justify the inexplicable killing of dozens of civilians. First, it was an attack on an Amal Movement office that killed security official Ahmad Baaalbeki. Amal, a close Hezbollah ally, quickly refuted this.

Then whispers spread that someone from the Bazze family, displaced from the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil, was the target. Other names like Rashid Al Mokdad also circulated.

“They strike us to plant the idea that they’re striking Hezbollah. This is the excuse every time. But Hezbollah wasn’t here,” Hamza said.

In reality, Israel never formally announced the target of the strike. The National was not able to verify a clear military target.

Weeks later, on inquiry, the Israeli army said its objective was “a Hezbollah terrorist target” in the neighbourhood. The army did not say who or what the raid was on, nor did it acknowledge the extent of the civilian casualties, saying only that Hezbollah “systematically embeds its terrorist assets into the civilian population”.

The presence of reconnaissance drones over Jnah before the strike meant Israeli forces “knew or should have known the nature of the target and seen the presence of civilians, so they could distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives”, said Mr Khan of Legal Action Worldwide.

Dahieh doctrine 

Israel’s pattern of destruction of residential buildings containing large numbers of displaced people demonstrates that its war is “not just on Hezbollah and its affiliated institutions, but also on the community from which Hezbollah hails", said Mr Houry.

Israel’s blurring of lines between legitimate and illegitimate objectives is a clear violation of international humanitarian law, he and Mr Khan told The National.

The disproportionate use of force aligns with Israel’s Dahieh Doctrine, named after the southern Beirut suburbs that were flattened during the 2006 July war between Israel and Hezbollah. The Israeli military strategy aims at inflicting maximum damage by deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure.

“It’s the oldest strategy in counter-insurgency,” said Mr Houry. “Instead of trying to empty the fish, you empty the water.”

The Israeli army told The National that, in all four attacks, it either struck “Hezbollah terrorist targets" or Hezbollah “infrastructure” but provided no evidence. It remained vague, never confirming or denying the suspected targets that brewed locally after each massacre – sowing fears of Lebanon’s displaced population among residents, who worry they may be exposing themselves to danger by accidentally sheltering members of Hezbollah.

At times, the rumours contradicted statements provided to The National by the Israeli army. In Barja, Arab and local media reported that the target of the attack was a Hezbollah official named Abdallah Ibrahim, who allegedly survived.

But the Israeli army told The National that the strike targeted "Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure," and not a Hezbollah member. Despite targeting a static location and, in contrast to other areas where the Israeli army usually issues bombing notices before striking infrastructure like weapon depots, the Israeli forces struck without warning.

Failure to take ‘all feasible precautions’ 

Over the past year, Israel has carried out dozens of precisely targeted operations in Lebanon, demonstrating it has the intelligence and the means to target moving vehicles or specific buildings otherwise housing civilians to assassinate specific individuals affiliated with Hezbollah and allies.

However, this was not the method chosen for attacks on any of the sites investigated by The National.

When Elie Alawan rented his summer house in the remote northern village of Aitou to some family friends from Aitaroun who were made homeless by Israel’s attacks on the south, he did not imagine his home and his friends would be obliterated within weeks.

“They were a great family. They never caused any problems. Super respectful,” he said.

For him it was simple: the Hijazi family had nowhere to go, and he had a spare house to rent them.

“They were people who were running away from war," Elie told The National. "What was I supposed to do, dismiss them?"

The family was grilling fish on October 14. They had invited Sarkis Alawan – Elie’s brother and their neighbour who survived the strike – as well as other guests to the Monday lunch.

In the aftermath of the strike, rumours circulated that one of the guests invited was Ahmad Faqih, a Hezbollah official - also from Aitaroun - who was reportedly charged with distributing financial aid to displaced families. His name was on the official list of the deceased, confirming his death in the strike.

The National verified his affiliation with Hezbollah through social media, although his role in the group remains unclear.

The day after the strike, The National witnessed a soldier in the Lebanese army handing a large sum of cash to another soldier from near what was believed to be Faqih’s car. The charred remnants of large Lebanese banknotes were found in the mangled remains of a Honda CRV, as well as a document with what The National was able to confirm as Faqih’s phone number scrawled inside.

The UN’s human rights office has called for an investigation into the Aitou attack, while security sources and legal experts question whether Israel took feasible precautions to create a distinction between Faqih, allegedly a Hezbollah operative, and the Hijazi family who were simply gathering for lunch.

“These attacks raise the question: Why are they waiting to strike these officials until after they’ve entered people’s homes?” a Lebanese security source asked. He accused the Israeli army of using a “double-edged strategy”: eliminating Hezbollah operatives while also alienating displaced Shiite populations.

The strikes on civilian areas “send a message that these areas should not host displaced Shiite populations because it exposes those welcoming them to danger”.

Mr Khan said Israeli forces are obligated, under international law, to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects from the effects of attacks. “This obligation includes selecting methods, means, and timing of attacks to minimise harm to civilians, as well as choosing targets—where feasible—that avoid densely populated areas or scenarios where civilian harm would be most likely,” he said.

Only six members of the Hijazi family survived the attack.

The homes of Elie’s brothers, Sarkis and Dany, were badly damaged, and their mother’s leg was broken.

“Thank God none of our family was killed,” Sarkis told The National two weeks after the blast. It was November 1 – All Saint’s Day. His family and members of the Aitou community had gathered at the site of the attack to pray over the souls of the Hijazi family.

“After the strike, a lot of people left the village,” Sarkis said. “They were scared that for whatever reason, the area would get hit again.”

“There has to be distinction between civilians and combatants,” Mr Houry from the Arab Reform Initiative said. “Israel is not making that distinction.”

When asked by The National, the Israeli army said it struck a “target belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization” and that “the claim that Lebanese civilians were killed as a result of the strike is under review”.

Hamza and Ali Mokdad, Ashraf Ramdan, Elie Alawan and numerous others have all now lost homes, loved ones, or both.

But they are the survivors – those left to make sense of the sudden, inexplicable Israeli assaults on their homes in towns previously untouched by war.

Hamza returned to Hay Al Mokdad before the ceasefire came into effect. He and his family have cleaned and fixed what they could of their building, which was badly damaged but, at least, not among the six flattened in the raid. He insists they will be rebuilt.

“The sadness will come later,” Hamza said. “When the neighbourhood is rebuilt, we will feel the space that’s left by the absence of our loved ones. The space where they should be.”