On Monday September 23, 2024, at least six civilians, including one woman and a child, were killed and a number of civilians were injured in an alleged Israeli airstrikes on the town of Sahmar in western Beqaa, Lebanon.

According to the Facebook account bintjbeil.org, the Facebook account of Sahmar city, and other social media users, an elderly couple, two children and two men were killed in the attack. Hajj Izz al-Din Alaa al-Din (Abu Jihad) was killed alongside his wife Maryam Wahbi (Umm Jihad). Other victims were named as 14-year-old boy Ali Mahdi Munim, Hassan Ali Sha’shou, Muhammad Abbas Ahmad al-Zain, and Ali Muhammad Riyad al-Khashin.

Bintjbeil.org also shared a collage of the victims’ photos. Hajj Izz al-Din Alaa al-Din appears as an elederly man sitting in a wheelchair. Maryam Wahbi is pictured wearing a headscarf with flowers.

Facebook user Em Adam mourned the death of her nephew Ali Muhammad Riyad al-Khashin on Facebook, writing “I will miss you so much and you left a burn in your aunt’s heart” and sharing a video with the pictures of the late Ali. He is pictured as a teenager dressed mostly in black. In another video shared on September 26, she also added moments of his funeral captured on camera. Though it appears that Ali was younger than 18, Airwars is unable to confirm his exact age. The upper counts for both men and children reflect this uncertainty.

Looking at photographs, another one of the victims, though it’s not clear who, was also a teenaged-boy at the time of the killing. This uncertainty in age is also reflected in the upper counts for children and men.

Zahraa Yosof also shared an image of Ali on Facebook, writing “Oh heaven in you ?Oh with a kind ? heart.”

Twitter/X user @AkhbarOrdon and multiple other users shared a video filmed in Sohmar by an eyewitness where several thick clouds of smoke rising over residential buildings can be seen. Khadije Elkechen shared a photo collage showing multiple clouds of smoke after explosions.

Media Press Lebanon reported that the airstrike damaged a carpet making facility and hit three homes and a coffee shop, but this information was not corroborated by other sources.

Writing on the incident, Media Press Lebanon noted that Israeli warplanes had been carrying out airstrikes in the western Bekaa for more than three hours.

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