Geolocation
Airwars assessment
On October 14th, 2024, around 2:00 PM, at least 22 civilians were killed and at least eight others were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on the town of Ayto, located in the Zgharta District of Northern Lebanon. According to the Lebnany Facebook page (The Grassroots Lebanese Nationalist Party led by the Lebanese diaspora), the building struck—a residential house owned by sculptor Maurice Alwan—provided shelter to displaced families from southern Lebanon. Approximately 30 individuals, including members of the Faqih and Hegazy families, had sought refuge there after fleeing the southern region of Aitaroun.
Local reports suggested that the target might have been Hezbollah member Ahmed Faqih, who was reported killed alongside his family.
The 22 civilians were primarily members of various family units from the Hegazy and Murad families. Among the first confirmed fatalities were 54-year-old Hussein Mohamed Hegazy, and 51-year-old Amal Mohamed Hegazy.
80-year-old Laila Hussein Hegazy, 70-year-old Maryam Hussein Hegazy, 29-year-old Ali Hussein Hegazy, 26-year-old Fouad Hussein Hegazy, 24-year-old Abbas Hussein Hegazy, 20-year-old Alaa Hussein Hegazy, and Ruqayya Hussein Issa, an 11-month-old baby girl, also lost their lives in the strike.
Sakna Ali Hegazy, 55 years old, and Eileen Ali Hegazy, a 4-month-old infant, were also killed.
30-year-old Ali Hassan Hegazy, 25-year-old Mohamed Hassan Hegazy, 20-year-old Abbas Hassan Hegazy and 95-year-old Sarriya Ali Awada also perished.
From the Murad family, Ahlam Ali Murad and 55-year-old Dalal Ali Murad were killed. Manal Naji Hamad was also killed alongside her husband Ahmed Ali Faqih, as were Salma Mohamed Abdel Moneim, Najia Mahmoud Hamad, and 24-year-old Jana Kamel Qasim along with 51-year-old Sanaa Abdel Karim Marmar. Ahmed Ali Faqih was identified by multiple sources, including “Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah” on Facebook, as a Hezbollah militant and therefore hasn’t been counted among civilians.
Numerous pictures and condolences were shared on social media by mourners, many of whom referring to the incident as “the Aitou-Ehden massacre.” Among the widely circulated images were those of Jana Kamel Qasim, a young woman from the town of Aitaroun, and her infant daughter. Three photos of Jana holding her baby were shared extensively. In these images, she is smiling and posing with her daughter, both dressed in pink and colorful clothing, capturing a moment of joy before their deaths.
A photograph of 24-year-old Abbas Hussein Hegazy was also shared by user Sawsan Mohamad Shalabi, showing Abbas wearing a red sweater and sitting outdoors on a sunny day, appearing happy. The post garnered numerous comments from users expressing their sorrow over his passing. In her caption, Sawsan wrote of “the pain that grips our hearts over your death,” remembering him as “truly a good brother and friend”.
Other Facebook accounts, such as Zgharta Today, shared a picture collage honouring the victims. Among the images, Jana Kamel Qasim can be identified in a cheerful, colorful portrait. The collage reveals that many of the victims were young, in their twenties. All the individuals portrayed are dressed in civilian clothing, going about their daily lives and celebrations. One person is seen posing on a pier wearing a black coat, while three others are pictured in T-shirts with brand logos. Some of the men are shown at a birthday party, and another is seen posing with an older woman, presumably his mother.
In another collage honouring the victims, shared by Rima Hammoud, additional photographs depict a young infant and several middle-aged women, all smiling and posing for the camera and wearing civilian clothing. Further photographs shared by Facebook user Aitaroun show Salma Abdel Moneim, Najia Hamad and Manal Naji Hamad – all middle aged and elderly women – and remembered each as a “Hajja”, suggesting they had completed the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
Regarding the injured, media reports remain inconsistent. Sources such as Mophleb mention 21 dead and eight injured, while the initial bulletin from the Civil Defense reported 19 dead, three missing, and nine wounded. Individuals such as Angel Faqih, in a post commemorating deceased relatives, prayed for “healing for the wounded”. No further updates have been released regarding their identities.
The Zgharta district of northern Lebanon is predominantly Christian. According to Facebook user “Middle East Newspaper”, referencing Reuters, this marks the first time the Christian-majority town had experienced a strike since the outbreak of the current conflict.
In a Facebook post, Eekad Facts reported that ICAD analyzed photographs documenting the site of the incident and determined that it occurred on the Zgharta-Ehden road, approximately 115 kilometers from the nearest border point in southern Lebanon. The post stated, “This is the first attack on Zgharta since 2006 and signifies an expansion of the [Israeli] bombing range in Lebanon.”
The Lebanese Civil Defense provided an update in its evening bulletin on Facebook regarding the tasks carried out since the strike occurred. The post reported that search and rescue operations, along with a comprehensive field survey, were still ongoing to locate all missing persons by evening. As of that time, operations conducted by Civil Defense personnel, in cooperation with other ambulance agencies, had resulted in the recovery of the bodies of 19 individuals and the remains of three others. According to Facebook user Mophleb, DNA tests were being carried out to identify unknown remains. A Civil Defense ambulance transported the body of one victim to the CHN Hospital in Zgharta. In a later update the following day, the Civil Defense reported discovering the body of an infant—unidentified at the time but possibly 11-month-old Ruqayya Hussein Issa or four-month-old Eileen Ali Hegazy—inside a pickup truck a few meters away from the building that was struck. This brought the death toll to 23 and marked the conclusion of search and rescue operations that afternoon after it was verified that all missing persons had been accounted for.
Several sources, including the “Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah and its surroundings” Facebook page and Abdul Hakeem Alzamiel, shared highly graphic images of the debris moments after the strike. These pictures show the collapsed structure, with bodies completely covered in dust beneath the rubble of torn walls. These images are contrasted with photographs of the house before the strike, highlighting the scale of the damage, with the second part of the building completely destroyed.
The images of the bodies under the rubble are particularly striking, showing the poses of the victims, with items such as blankets or a bare foot visible, underscoring the normal domestic life they were living before the overwhelming force of the strike.
Other images shared by sources such as “Middle East Newspaper” and Akkar the Truth’s Facebook page show the efforts of the Lebanese Red Cross personnel to recover the bodies. These pictures offer a wider view of the location, capturing objects such as a mattress several meters away from the destroyed house, indicating the severity of the impact. Additionally, at least 30 people, including Red Cross personnel and military personnel, can be seen working in the area, highlighting the challenges they faced in recovering the bodies from the heavy debris.
In an article titled “On The Massacres That Have Introduced Me to the Smell of Death”, journalist Jana Barakat describes how “I first inhaled the smell of death in the town of Ayto in the Zgharta district, where Israeli bombardment targeted a building sheltering displaced people from the town of Aitaroun in South Lebanon. This was allegedly to target a Hezbollah member, Ahmad Faqih. Pools of blood covering the ground remain a testament to the Israeli strikes that killed 23 people. Clothes were strewn across nearby trees, bread soaked in blood, and remains scattered in every corner as teams from the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense worked tirelessly to gather them into a single black bag for later identification.” Journalist Jana Barakat went on to say that “Just minutes before we arrived at the strike site in Ayto, the Lebanese Red Cross team managed to retrieve the body of an infant only a few months old, who had been thrown by the missile from their “safe” home into a parked car outside. At that moment, even the seasoned faces of the medics appeared pale, as the horror of the scene overwhelmed their experience.”
The cars parked near the house also show significant damage, which aligns with information from the Civil Defense about the discovery of an infant’s body inside one of the vehicles.
Angel Faqih and other users, such as Ihab Al-Zahir Abu Hazem, also shared pictures of the funeral that took place in the Koura district of Bahoush. In the photos, improvised caskets – appearing to be topless caskets covered with the Lebanese flag – are visible. Nearby, building materials and tools—such as black plywood—are visible. In other images, black boxes that have been constructed for burial are shown. These photos highlight the difficult and unplanned nature of these deaths and demonstrate how the family and loved ones had to be resourceful in burying numerous family members at once.
Several media sources, including BekaaNow, Beirut Team, and Eekad, reported that the strike was specifically targeting Ahmed Faqih. Due to his status as a militant, Faqih has not been added to civilian casualty lists. There seemed to be some initial confusion as to who was killed, with at least one source, @Osint613 which was quoting Hebrew language source @IsraelHayomHeb, stating that a “Ahmad Faqih” who was “a Hezbollah field commander and a resident of Aitaroun” was the target of the strike, along with an image of a young man. However, source Abu Ali Express pointed out that the pictured man was Ahmad Nimr Faqih who was killed in Kfar Kila, Lebanon on October 1st.
Although Ahmed Ali Faqih was associated with Hezbollah, no identifiable symbols of the group appear in any of the funeral images. While Hezbollah does operate an active militant wing, its political presence is deeply integrated within the Lebanese state, providing social and organizational services, primarily in Shia-majority areas of Southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, and the suburbs of Beirut. Given this context, and the lack of any signs of militant activity in the area, the presence of Ahmed Ali Faqih alone cannot be used to suggest that the other victims were affiliated with Hezbollah’s armed wing or that there was any militant presence at the site.
Given the extensive evidence of the strike and the confirmed loss of life, with multiple sources attributing the attack to Israeli forces, Airwars has assessed the strike status as “likely”, and civilian harm status has been classified as “fair”
Where sources identified the belligerent, all sources attributed the strike to the Israeli military.
The incident occured at approximately 2:00 pm local time.
The victims were named as:
Family members (2)
Family members (7)
Family members (2)
Family members (4)
Family members (2)
The victims were named as:
Geolocation notes (1) [ collapse]
Reports of the incident mention a strike in the vicinity of the town of Aitou (أيطو). This incident was independently geolocated by Eekad – إيكاد. Satellite imagery shows the strike location at the following exact coordinates: 34.304255, 35.913539.
Summary
Sources (36) [ collapse]
Media
from sources (64) [ collapse]
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Source: Maha -
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Source: Lebanese -
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Source: Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah and its surroundings -
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Source: Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah and its surroundings -
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Source: Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah and its surroundings -
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Source: Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah and its surroundings -
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Source: Residents of Al-Zaidaniyah and its surroundings -
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Source: Beirut Team -
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Source: Eekad -
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Source: Eekad -
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Source: Eekad -
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Source: Eekad -
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Source: Sons of Gaza -
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Source: bintjbeil.org -
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Source: Aitaroun -
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Source: Zgharta is going -
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Source: Aitaroun -
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Source: Aitaroun -
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Source: Abdul Hakeem Alzamiel -
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Source: Abdul Hakeem Alzamiel -
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Source: Abdul Hakeem Alzamiel -
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Source: Abdul Hakeem Alzamiel -
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Source: Tripoli in our hearts -
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Source: Tripoli in our hearts -
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Source: Tripoli in our hearts -
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Source: Tripoli in our hearts -
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Source: Akkar the truth -
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Source: Akkar the truth -
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Source: Akkar the truth -
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Source: Akkar the truth -
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Source: Avoid a -
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Source: Avoid a -
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Source: Avoid a -
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Source: Noah's Evidence -
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Source: Noah's Evidence -
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Source: Noah's Evidence -
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Source: Middle East Newspaper -
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Source: Middle East Newspaper -
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Source: Middle East Newspaper -
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Source: Middle East Newspaper -
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Source: Middle East Newspaper -
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Source: Middle East Newspaper -
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Source: Reem Hani Arnouk -
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Source: Reem Hani Arnouk -
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Source: Reem Hani Arnouk -
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Source: Reema Hamoud -
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Source: Mohammed H. Issa -
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Source: Mohammed Hassan Dahini -
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Source: Susan Mohammed Shalaby -
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Source: Aitaroun -
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Source: Zgharta is going -
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Source: Angel Faqih -
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Source: Angel Faqih -
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Source: Angel Faqih -
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Source: Ihab Al-Zahir Abu Hazem -
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Source: Ihab Al-Zahir Abu Hazem -
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