Israel killed baby Zahraa and her mother, Fatima Wehbi by dropping a bomb on a residential building in Lebanon’s capital this week. X
Israel has carried out a targeted strike in Choueifat, which borders Beirut’s southern suburbs, hitting yet another high‑value target. This time, Israel wiped out a Lebanese mother, Fatima Wehbi, and her three‑month‑old daughter, Zahraa, who was born during the ongoing Israeli assault on Lebanon. Mother and child were killed instantly by a single U.S.-made bomb.
Muslim News also reported from London that at least 19 civilians have been killed and 58 wounded in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, according to Lebanese health authorities and the Lebanese Red Cross, as Israel intensifies its assault in the south and issues mass displacement orders throughout the region.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said last Thursday that an Israeli airstrike south of Beirut killed Fatima Wehbi and her infant daughter, Zahraa. The strike hit as the mother was reportedly holding her child. The infant was later seen wrapped in pink blankets after Israel’s military claimed it had “precisely struck” the area—without identifying the target. It marked the first strike on the Lebanese capital in three weeks.
Earlier that same day, before the killing of Mrs. Wehbi and her daughter, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that six members of the same family were killed in an Israeli drone strike while attempting to flee at dawn along the Adloun Highway, a key road linking Sidon and Tyre. Incidentally, that was only several miles from where I grew up before leaving Lebanon on March 10, 1971.
The tragic loss of Fatima Wehbi and her newborn daughter is part of a series of attacks that have left at least 19 civilians, including children, dead and 58 wounded in Israeli assaults across Lebanon. The Israeli military has intensified its operations in the south, targeting residential areas, roads, and civilian infrastructure, leading to mass displacement orders throughout the country. Israel’s goal appears to be the creation of a no‑man’s‑land or buffer zone to ensure villagers cannot return. Dozens of villages in southern Lebanon have been leveled.
While the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have spent the last 18 months systematically bombing and killing civilians across Lebanon, Hezbollah’s attacks have been directed at Israeli occupation forces and military targets operating inside Lebanese territory and along the border. The equation is simple: IOF forces are preventing Lebanese residents from returning to their towns while simultaneously turning northern Israeli settlements into military staging grounds against Hezbollah—thereby placing their own civilians at risk.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah fighters are inflicting heavy casualties on the IOF in south Lebanon, using FPV drone attacks on Israeli troops, tanks, and armored vehicles. Israeli troops have become sitting ducks. Military commanders are now ordering their soldiers to seek shelter during daylight hours and not emerge until after dark. The IOF is losing several soldiers every day due to suicide drone attacks or sniper fire.
Incidentally, I have written several articles over the last three years about Lebanese and Palestinian mothers named Fatima. In fact, my paternal grandmother—whom I never met—was also named Fatima. She was murdered along with my uncle Yousef three years before I was born by Jewish paramilitary groups during the 1948 Nakba.
The name Fatima is of Arabic origin and means “one who separates” or “one who abstains.” It is commonly associated with Fatima Zahraa, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
As long as Lebanese civilians are barred from returning to their homes under bombardment and occupation, residents of northern Israel will not fully return either. Responsibility for this situation lies first and foremost with Israel, which refuses to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon despite ceasefire agreements requiring it.
The IOF is now bombing many residential buildings in Lebanon without warning civilians. Just like in Gaza, whenever Israel suffers losses on the ground, it responds by bombing civilians from the sky. As one Lebanese political commentator put it: “Israel is literally telling Lebanese civilians to evacuate their buildings in Beirut in the middle of the night while they are sleeping—then bombing them 10 minutes later. And then they say, ‘We warned civilians.’”
Fearing direct confrontation with resistance fighters on the ground in Lebanon and Gaza, the IOF is resorting to what it does best: bombing from the sky and carrying out targeted assassinations against Lebanese civilians and displaced Palestinians living in tents in Gaza.
Do not be fooled by indicted war criminal Netanyahu. Israel is targeting all Lebanese—not just Hezbollah. The IOF is striking Shi’a, Sunni, Christian, Druze, Alawi communities, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. “Crime Minister” Netanyahu is not abiding by the ceasefire agreement and acts as if he lives by the law of the jungle. Why is this not making news? This can be added to the already too‑long, ever‑expanding list of crimes committed by his army.
Finally, behind every Lebanese and Palestinian killed by the IDF is a family forever changed, a future cut short, and a sacrifice that must never be forgotten. Please do not let the world normalize this suffering. These children deserve safety, treatment, dignity, and a future.
Rest in peace, Fatima and baby Zahraa.
caption 1: The Israeli Airforce hit another high-value target in Beirut, killing a Lebanese mother with and her three-month old daughter, ZahraaPhoto credit: Dearborn.org
caption 2: Thousands of displaced people return to Lebanon from Syria due to the continued lack of job opportunities and high cost of living in Syria. Source: Dearborn.org
caption 3: Israel is a terrorist state because it is targeting all Lebanese-not just Hezbollah. The IOF is targeting women, children, Shi'a, Sunni, Christians, Druze, Alawi, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon
Mahmoud El‑Yousseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran. He writes on U.S. foreign policy, Middle East affairs, and justice. Email: elyousseph6@yahoo.com
