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Airwars Assessment
(Previous Incident Code: ISLB250924zb)
On September 24, 2024, a young man – an engineer – and a former student of Phoenicia University Hussein Abu Zaid was reportedly killed in an attack in southern Lebanon.
His alma mater, Phoenicia University in Lebanon, honoured his memory on Facebook, grieving his loss “with deep sorrow and sadness.” A graduate of their electrical and communications engineering program, Hussein was described as “a model of an outstanding, ambitious, and hard-working student.” The tribute included a photo of him wearing a black polo shirt, standing against the backdrop of a sunset-lit sky.
Zahra Alhajj Harbi responded to the University’s post, writing that Hussein was “One of the kindest people. A respectful, loving, and pure-hearted man.”
The University posted the same to Instagram, and user @just_saeed99 commented, writing that Hussein’s “support made me make it through the engineering school.”
A number of friends and loved ones posted in honour of Hussein. Ali Kharroubi, posting to Facebook, wrote:
“Congratulations, this is my life partner, study partner, dream partner, and future partner… This is a pure soul, this is a white spirit…I was prepared for anything, except the day I would mourn you…Goodbye, my beloved… May God protect you, Engineer…”
Manal Hassan Abu Zeid, perhaps a relative of Hussein’s, wrote in Hussein’s honour: “May God have mercy on his soul and grant patience to his family.”
Hussein’s fiance, fiance, Layla Ali Shmaysene, posted to Facebook on August 30, 2025, sharing an image from Hussein’s grave. Hussein’s grave is black marble, and includes an inscription of bust, in which he wears a checkered scarf around his neck – in a style commonly invoked in Hezbollah martyr photos. Indeed, a framed photo of Ali with a yellow background is situated in the background of the photo – and appears to be a Hezbollah martyr photo.
However, while Hezbollah operates an active militant wing, their political presence is also deeply enmeshed within the state, providing social and organisational services, primarily in the Shia majority areas in Southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, and the suburbs of Beirut. With this context in mind, Airwars is not using the existence of a martyr photo which does not invoke the term ‘مجاهد’ (‘Mujahed’) on its own to deduce militancy. As such, Hussein has been recorded as a civilian. This will be updated should additional information become available.
The account noted that Hussein was killed in a “brutal attack” but did not specify the responsible party. Therefore, in the context of the ongoing conflict between the Israeli military and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Airwars has recorded both the Israeli military and Hezbollah as possible belligerents and thus graded the ‘Strike Status’ as “contested.” In regard to this incident’s civilian harm status, as a number of sources posted online in Hussein’s honour, the civilian harm status has been recorded as “fair.” This will be updated should additional information become available.
Assessment Updates
Key Information
Geolocation Notes
Reports of the incident mention the region of Southern Lebanon (جنوب لبنان), for which the generic coordinates are: 33.325800, 35.431900. Due to limited satellite imagery and information available to Airwars, we were unable to verify the location further.