Lebanese Australians mourn family members killed in Israeli attacks on Beirut and southern Lebanon

“Losing a child is like having a piece of your heart ripped out,” says Hoda Hannaway, speaking of her 10-year-old nephew who was killed in a recent Israeli airstrike south of Beirut.

A former Master Chef contestant from Sydney said she was “deeply saddened” when she learned of his death in a family group chat.

“No child should have to experience a full-scale war, let alone live in constant, horrific fear,” she told the ABC.

Waiting for an answer from loved ones was like “living on the edge.”

It’s a feeling shared among the Lebanese-Australian community – some 250,000 people strong.

Devastated for her nephew and her family, she said she couldn’t imagine what they had been through.

Her family was forced to flee their homes to escape “merciless” bombing in southern Beirut and the south of the country.

More than 1.2 million people in the country have been forced to flee their homes, living on the streets or in schools that have been turned into shelters, Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikatir said.

According to UNICEF Lebanon representative Eduard Beigbeder, who said: “Above all, the children of Lebanon need a ceasefire.”

The death toll in Lebanon from Israeli bombing has risen to more than 2,653, with thousands more injured and others still missing under the rubble, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israel says about 60,000 of its citizens have been evacuated from the north of the country following a firefight between the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

The United Nations recently criticized the destruction of civilian property in Beirut after Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah’s financial arm.

It was the first time Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli forces in support of the Gaza Strip since war broke out between Israel and the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, according to the group’s now-killed leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

It followed Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 more hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel responded with air strikes and invaded Gaza, engaging in a war that has so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and wounded tens of thousands more, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Lebanese Shia community in mourning

Australia’s Lebanese Shia Muslims – one of the two main sects of Islam – have been deeply affected by the bombing in Lebanon as their families come from southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut.

Ms Hannaway said she felt completely “helpless” as she watched from afar.

Director of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, Karima Laahir, said the feeling would be common among some in the Lebanese diaspora.

Professor Laahir said Hezbollah, which has military and political wings, has a deep history in Lebanon, making it part of the country’s political and social fabric.

Since 2021, Hezbollah in its entirety has been listed as a proscribed terrorist organization in Australia.

Previously, in June 2003, the Australian government listed only parts of the group’s military wing.

Professor Laachir said the group had held cabinet positions since 2005.

In the last national elections in 2022, Hezbollah retained its 13 seats in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament.

According to the government’s national security website, as of September 10, 2021, he holds two positions in the Lebanese government.

“They’re trying to stay alive”

At the outset, Ms. Hannaway said she was disappointed that Israeli attacks were not condemned by the West.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was “deeply concerned by the escalation of the conflict”.

“Lebanese civilians cannot be forced to pay the price of defeating Hezbollah, and Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza Strip,” said Senator Wong.

After meeting with other EU leaders at a summit in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel to end military operations in Lebanon, respect its sovereignty and avoid widening the conflict.

Former NSW Liberal deputy mayor Hassan Awada had similar feelings.

He had just learned that nine of his relatives had been killed in recent airstrikes in southern Lebanon.

He was devastated by this news. Other members of his family were displaced.

He wondered why no one intervened in Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and subsequent invasion of its south.

“As a country Australia, we pay a lot of attention to human rights, international law and so on,” he said.

Mr Awada, who lived in Lebanon until he was 22, said he felt these recent attacks in the south “on a personal level”.

He said he saw dozens of friends and relatives die during those wars.

“No missiles under their houses”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Lebanese people that the war was not with them, but with Hezbollah.

In an address to the UN on September 27 this year, he accused Hezbollah of placing “a rocket in every kitchen” of the Lebanese people and “a rocket in every garage.”

Sydney resident Battoul said she had lost several family members and friends in Israeli attacks in eastern Lebanon, Baalbek and southern Lebanon.

“There were no missiles under their houses like (the Israeli prime minister) said,” she said.

Israel says it only targeted Hezbollah members and infrastructure.

Professor Laachir said Mr Netanyahu’s comments at the UN were questionable given the ongoing loss of civilian lives in the Gaza Strip.

A new report from the UN’s independent international commission of inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories says Israel pursued a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s health system and committed war crimes by carrying out ruthless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.

It found that Israeli security forces “deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and attacked medical vehicles.”

“These actions constitute war crimes of willful killing and cruelty, as well as the destruction of protected civilian property, and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the report said.

The commission also found that Palestinian armed groups were responsible for war crimes.

Battul, who asked ABC to use only her first name, said her family members killed were innocent civilians and not legitimate targets.

The recent attacks have made it too difficult for her to go to work.

“I couldn’t look people in the face because they don’t understand what it’s like,” she said.

Professor Laachir said she was concerned that the Lebanese community was watching from afar to see whether the war in Lebanon would drag on.

“Australia’s Lebanese population still has strong ties to their homeland… if these attacks on Lebanon continue at the same rate as the massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip, it will be a huge problem for the Lebanese and Arab population,” she said.

Batool said it was “painful” to watch.

Most of her family members in Lebanon had to leave their homes.