Shortly after midnight on 26 September 2024, at least 15 people, including five women and two children, were killed when an airstrike hit the Shuaib family home in Karak, in the Zahle District of Lebanon; up to eight others were reported injured. The family was reportedly celebrating their son’s 15th birthday when the airstrike hit, killing all the family members apart from a young girl identified as Rayan Haidar Shuaib.

News Outlets and Social Media accounts initially reported eight deaths and “wounded” as rescue workers searched for missing bodies beneath the rubble. Friend Zahlioun wrote on Facebook that he hoped the “missing” would be found whilst the “relief work and rubble removal” teams searched for further eight missing victims. Shortly thereafter, a total of 15 deaths were reported. Some later sources increased this figure to 16.

Friends and Family, posting on social media, identified the victims. Writing on Facebook, the family’s neighbour Patricia Zeineddine, reported that the family had gathered to celebrate the 15th Birthday of their son, who she describes as a “sweet young man,” when the airstrike hit and “the whole family was buried under the rubble.”

The fifteen members of the family who were killed were identified as:

Anwar Shuaib, his wife Dalal Shuaib and their children Muhammad Anwar Shuaib, Zahra Anwar Shuaib and Abbas Anwar Shuaib; Hisham Shuaib, Anwar’s brother, and his children, Hussein Hisham Shuaib, Maryam Hisham Shuaib and Taha Hisham Shuaib. Both Hisham, his brother Anwar and his son Abbas were professors. Both Anwar and Hisham were respectfully remembered for having completed the pilgrimage to Mecca, an undertaking highly prized by their community. Speaking of Anwar, Hamieh Amal remembered someone who spread “goodness, kindness, wisdom [and] guidance.”

The late Anwar was an accountant. In a Facebook post, Hamieh Amal remembered him with the following words:

“The end of the month was not only an occasion for us to receive our salary from the meticulous, well-mannered, and calm accountant, “Hajj Anwar”, it was an occasion for him to motivate us with his words and appreciation for our efforts. He made us forget our fatigue with his high morals and his correction of our path, “We are in an institution in the name of the Master of the Age (may God hasten his reappearance) and our work is in his sight.”

In a photo shared by Mohamad Ali Raad, Hisham is depicted as a middle-aged man with grey hair and stubble; he smiles against a green backdrop of hills, wearing a blue and grey striped jumper.  In a photo shared on social media by friend Hsein Mortada, Abbas is pictured with short brown hair and stubble, drinking coffee at a Shisha bar with his friend. He is wearing a white polo shirt with blue and red stripes. Remembered as  “hardworking,” Mortada memorialised Abbas: “Someone like you is not mourned, but your impact remains immortal in the soul.” Zahra is depicted in a photo shared on social media as a young woman, shown wearing a black hijab and black dress, smiling toward the camera.

Haider Muhammad Shuaib, the other brother of Anwar and Hisham, his wife, Maliha Raad Shuaib, and their children, Ali Haidar Shuaib and Bayan Haidar Shuaib, were also killed. Maliha’s cousin Lily Raad shared a photo on social media depicting Maliha wearing a white hijab and dress embroidered with jewels, alongside her daughter Bayan, who wears a matching white outfit, and her youngest daughter Rayan, the only survivor of the attack. The three other photos shared alongside the first are portraits of her husband Haider, her son Ali and her daughter Bayan. Haider is depicted as a middle-aged man with grey hair. He is perched on a stool in a garden, wearing blue jeans and a white Adidas T-shirt. Ali is depicted in a headshot as a young boy with medium-length brown hair.

Their grandmother, Sarah Al-Nimr (Umm Anwar), and the young man Jawad Nabil Haidar Ahmed, a family friend, were also killed. In a photo shared on social media, Jawad is depicted as a young boy with medium-length dark hair and stubble wearing the Lebanese Scouts uniform.

Rayan Haidar Shuaib, the only surviving member of her family, was reportedly taken to intensive care. Facebook user Student of Lebanon described the harrowing pain felt by Rayan as she woke, searching with her eyes for one of her family members, but did not find anyone.”

Two days after the incident on 27th September, Al Jazeera Egypt reported that “operations for survivors under the rubble were still ongoing.  Tyre City reported “16 martyrs from the Al-Shuaib family.” A video shared alongside the post depicted women and men mourning the death of their loved ones; bodies wrapped in green plastic shrouds are laid across seats in a hall. The comment reads, “In the town of Karak in the Bekaa, 16 martyrs from one family were killed.” No further details on any potential sixteenth victim have been made available.