Israeli Drone Kills Man and 12-Year-Old Daughter in ‘Barbaric’ Double-Tap Strike

This article was originally published in Common Dreams under Creative Commons 3.0 license. Read the original article. Contact: editor@commondreams.org

By Olivia Rosane

An Israeli drone killed a Syrian laborer and his 12-year-old daughter in a double-tap attack in southern Lebanon on Saturday, in what the Lebanon Health Ministry described as part of a continuing pattern “of grave violations of International Humanitarian Law.”

The man was riding with his daughter on a motorcycle in Nabatiyeh when the pair were targeted by three drone strikes, according to the ministry.

The Associated Press reported:

The girl was taken to the hospital, but did not survive her injuries, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

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“The Ministry of Public Health denounces this barbaric targeting and the deliberate violence against civilians and children in Lebanon,” the ministry said, as AP reported.

The father and daughter were among a total of at least 24 people in Lebanon who were killed by Israeli strikes on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.

One strike on the town of al-Saksakieh killed seven, among them a child. The strike also wounded 15 people including three children.

The bombings continue despite a nominal ceasefire between Lebanon and Hezbollah that went into effect April 17. However, Israel has killed almost 500 people in Lebanon since April 16, raising the death toll since its March 2 invasion to over 2,750.

War correspondent Courtney Schellekens shared the story of the 12-year-old girl and her father in a video on social media on Saturday.

“What does terrorism mean to you? If it’s [not] double-tap killings of paramedics, journalists, and today a 12 year old girl, then what is it?” she wrote above the video.

At the conclusion of the video itself, she continued the same line of questioning.

“To my Western followers, I really want you to think critically about the definition of terrorism, to whom it gets applied and who does it benefit,” she said. “Because where I’ve been sitting for the last 18 months, this mass murder and mass, you know, look at this,” she gestured to the ruble behind her, “this mass destruction, this ethnic cleansing of south Lebanon, this looks a lot like terrorism to me.”

[DS]

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