4 members of a Lebanese household with U.S. ties — together with three youngsters and their father — had been killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon over the weekend that left a complete of 5 folks lifeless, in line with family members.
Shadi Charara, a automotive seller, was killed whereas driving dwelling to the southern seaside metropolis of Tyre on Sunday together with his spouse and 4 youngsters after having lunch at his father-in-law’s home within the city of Bint Jbeil, just a few miles from the border with Israel.
The Israeli army has acknowledged finishing up the strike, saying in a press release that it had been focusing on a Hezbollah militant, whom it didn’t title, and that he “operated from within a civilian population.”
Sam Bazzi, the youngsters’s maternal grandfather, instructed The Related Press the household thought they had been secure as a result of they’d no affiliation with Hezbollah.
In its assertion, the Israeli army acknowledged that civilians had been killed within the strike and stated that it was reviewing the incident.
“We’re regular citizens and we don’t belong to any group,” Bazzi stated. “And so we thought we had nothing to do with it and we were just living normally, coming and going.”
The household was just a few hundred yards from Bazzi’s home when a bike handed by, and on the identical second, the Israeli drone struck. In addition to Charara, the strike claimed the lives of his twin 18-month-old son and daughter Hadi and Silan, 8-year-old daughter Celine, and the motorcyclist, a neighborhood man named Mohammed Majed Mroue.
The youngsters’s mom, Amina Bazzi, and her oldest daughter, Asil, survived however had been severely wounded. Bazzi, her face bruised and swollen, was carried on a stretcher by means of the gang on the funeral of her husband and kids in Bint Jbeil.
Amani Bazzi, who was injured Sunday within the city of Bint Jbeil, exhibits a portrait of 1 her three children who had been killed after an Israeli drone strike hit her household automotive, as she lies in Tibnin hospital, southern Lebanon, Sept. 22, 2025.
Mohammad Zaatari/AP
On the funeral, the coffins had been draped in Lebanese flags, and solely Lebanese flags had been waving within the crowd. The distinctive yellow Hezbollah flag is often flown at funerals in southern Lebanon — one of many group’s principal strongholds — when its operatives are being buried.
A U.S.-brokered ceasefire halted the newest Israel-Hezbollah struggle in November, two months after a whole bunch of handheld pagers exploded close to concurrently in components of Lebanon and Syria in a classy, distant assault. The battle started on Oct. 8, 2023, when Hezbollah started firing rockets throughout the border, sooner or later after a lethal Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel sparked the struggle in Gaza. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the 2 sides grew to become locked in battle.
For the reason that ceasefire took impact, Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes in southern Lebanon. Israeli officers regularly say it’s focusing on Hezbollah militants or infrastructure. Hezbollah has solely acknowledged firing throughout the border as soon as for the reason that ceasefire, however Israel says the militant group is making an attempt to rebuild its capabilities.
The ceasefire doesn’t cowl preventing in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, one other militant group that’s backed by Iran. Ceasefire efforts in that battle have stalled.
Charara’s sister, Amina, who lives in Dearborn, Mich., stated homes belonging to the household had been broken or destroyed in final 12 months’s struggle, however they’d counted themselves fortunate that none of their family members had been harmed.
“We always said thank God we only lost stones and not human beings,” she stated. “The houses and stones can be rebuilt, but how can my brother return?”
A girl stands subsequent to portraits of Shadi Charara and three of his youngsters killed Sunday in an Israeli drone strike that hit their automotive, throughout a funeral procession in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon, Sept. 23, 2025.
Mohammad Zaatari/AP
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stated after the strike that Shadi Charara and his youngsters had been U.S. residents. Nonetheless, relations instructed the AP that Charara didn’t have U.S. citizenship however that his siblings and father dwell in america and are residents. They stated Charara had utilized to affix them and just lately obtained approval however was nonetheless ready for visas.
A State Division official declined to touch upon “personal details.”
The European Union on Sunday condemned the strike and known as for “full respect and implementation of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.”
“Security concerns should be addressed by making full use of the monitoring mechanism established in the framework of the ceasefire agreement,” it stated.
Amina Charara stated the household within the U.S. had been always nervous about their family members in Lebanon.
“My brother was a man who loved life and loved his family. He had nothing to do with politics. He was working to provide for his family,” she stated. “What was the fault of the children for Israel to kill them?”
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