On the night of September 26, 2024, an alleged Israeli airstrike hit the guardhouse of Ali Hijazi’s house in the Al-Mahta neighbourhood in Baalbek. Ali Hijazi, the Secretary General of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, was not present at the time of the attack. Up to three guards were reportedly injured, with one, Omar Zakaria Mustafa, being killed.

Following news of the incident, multiple sources focused on the well-being of the Secretary General. Several reported on a telephone call with MTV and Hijazi in which he stated that he was well, but three of his companions were “moderately injured” in the event.

According to a post by Zahlioun, drones were present in the area where they continued to drop bombs until the early hours of dawn. Other reports on social media shared images of the destruction of the neighbourhood, depicting rubble-strewn streets, damaged cars, and plumes of smoke rising from damaged buildings. Following the incident, it was noted that the building that was hit in the attack “was at risk of collapsing completely”.

It was later reported by Jamal Mosalli that Omar Zakaria Mustafa was killed in the attack. In the post, Mustafa was heralded as a “heroic martyr”. Attached to this post was a memorial photo of Mustafa and an image of men lined up holding their hands to hearts in apparent reverence for the young man.

Airwars understands that these were private guards for the political official, and were not associated with militant groups involved in hostilities to this conflict. Therefore the individuals harmed have been categorised as civilians; Airwars will update this assessment should further information come to light.

Where sources identified a belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to Israeli forces.