Incident Code
Incident Date
Location
Airwars Assessment
At approximately 6:00 p.m. on November 26, 2024, at least three civilians – two young children and a woman – were killed, and at least five others injured in an airstrike allegedly deployed by the Israeli military. The attack struck the home of Professor Fouad Wahbi in the Al-Wahbi neighbourhood, in the district of Al-Sharawna, Baalbek city, in Lebanon. Three men were also killed, and they appear to have been militants. It does not seem that Professor Fouad Wahbi was among those killed.
An initial death toll of six individuals was first reported by Anadolu Agency on Facebook. According to the Royal Arab Society, at least three of the individuals killed were “a woman and her children.” As of 9:44 p.m., a final bulletin published by the Lebanese Civil Defense noted that the bodies of seven deceased and five wounded individuals had been retrieved from under the rubble.
The deceased were identified by the Facebook community Al Wahbi Al Bekaa as being Ahmed Fouad Wahbi, his young son Hussein Ahmed Fouad Wahbi, Abdul Karim Fouad Wahbi, Mohamed Fouad Wahbi, Zahraa Mazloum (female), and a young girl, Zahraa Ali Hussein. The identity of the potential seventh victim alleged by the Lebanese Civil Defense has not been made public.
Video reels shared by Facebook account ‘Al Wahbi Al-Biqa” showed Hezbollah martyr photos made for Ahmed Fouad Wahbi, Abdul Karim Fouad Wahbi, and Mohamed Fouad Wahbi. Speifically, the three men were individually commemorated as ‘martyred mujahed’s. Though the term is not exclusively militant in nature, Airwars has found that when the term is invoked by members of Hezbollah, it generally indicates militant affiliation, rather than purely political. For this reason, the three men have been recorded as militants. This will be updated should additional information become available.
Posts by Al Wahbi Al Bekaa and Madient Alshams Baâlbalk (Baalbeck news) paid tribute to and shared images of the deceased, referring to them as “heroes”. Pictures of the children, Hussein and Zahraa Ali, showed them cheerful and smiling. Another of Zahraa Ali showed her in a white sweater. No images were found of Zahraa Mazloum.
The Facebook page for the neighbourhood, Al Wahbi Al Bekaa, announced that “Verses from the Holy Quran [would] be recited for their pure souls” during the funeral. In addition to the named civilians, Hussein Fouad Wahbi was included in this post. A member of the family, Hussein, had been killed prior, on 21 November. Though sources included him to reflect the family association and his recent death, he was not included in the civilian casualty ranges for this incident.
A video posted following the event showed an ambulance and a fire engine on-site, fighting a sizable fire that had erupted in the front of the compound closest to the street. The structure of the house was barely visible and looked to have been demolished in comparison to the rest of the houses still standing on the street. A picture taken from afar, posted by Hameed Alta`ai, showed a large cloud of smoke rising from the scene of the attack, illuminated by the fires below.
The names of the injured individuals are unknown. Suzane Al-ayoubi and the Royal Arab Society alleged six had been wounded, an increased toll from an earlier count of five.
Where sources identified belligerents, all sources attributed the airstrike to the Israeli military.