UN refugee agency says workers among those killed in Israeli airstrike in Lebanon

The UN refugee agency says one of its staff members and her child were killed in an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon – one of more than 1,000 strikes in the past two days.

UNHCR said Dina Darwiche’s house was hit on Monday. Her husband and her eldest son were rescued and are in hospital with serious injuries, the agency said.

Ms. Darwiche had worked at the UNHCR office in Bekaa for 12 years.

Meanwhile, Ali Basma, who worked for the UNHCR office in the southern city of Tire as a cleaner, was also killed.

In a statement, the organization said it was “angry and deeply saddened” by their killings.

“Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have now killed hundreds of civilians,” UNHCR global director Filippo Grandi said on Tuesday.

“And I am very saddened to confirm that two of our UNHCR colleagues were also killed yesterday.”

Friends of Ms Darwiche described her as “the gentlest and kindest soul we knew.”

“He was dedicated to his humanitarian work with UNHCR from a long time ago,” wrote Professor Jasmin Lilian Diab, an academic at the Lebanese American University, in X. “I’m broken. I’m completely destroyed.”

Funerals for those killed were taking place across Lebanon.

In the southern city of Sidon, Mohammed Hilal was joined by hundreds of other people who were going to cry to say goodbye to his daughter at the funeral held by eight other people.

Three members of Hezbollah were among those buried, according to the Reuters news agency that filmed the incident.

Mr. Hilal knelt over his daughter’s body, covered in an embroidered blanket, and wept.

He told Reuters that he left his home in the city of Saksakiyeh on Monday to complete documents identifying his family. When he came back, he said, “I found him killed because of cruel anger, cowardice that kills children.”

Israel says it has warned the Lebanese to leave their homes and distance themselves from areas used by Hezbollah.

But Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad told the BBC that Israel had created “criminals” and that it was “obvious” that many of the victims were civilians, including children and women who were in their homes doing “normal things”.

Israel says it has targeted Hezbollah sites, accusing the Iran-backed group of hiding weapons and rockets in residential buildings and using civilians as human shields.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue attacking Hezbollah positions. Israel suspected that some of the weapons were stored in people’s homes.

“Anyone who has missiles in their living room and a rocket in their garage will not have a place to live,” he said in a video posted on social media.

Meanwhile, the UN children’s agency told the BBC that many children living in shelters in the capital have been “severely traumatized”.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are believed to have fled their homes, the country’s foreign minister said.

“Most of them left in a few minutes without taking anything, they just got their cars and left the house,” said Edouard Beigbeder of Unicef.

“Some of them saw their house destroyed, while others saw their family members, their brothers and sisters killed or injured. So those who came to Beirut suffered a lot.”

Additional reporting by Hugo Bachega and Nafiseh Kohnavard in Beirut