The IDF said that the bombing apartments were the basis of Hizbollah – but most of those who died were citizens.

Julia Ramadan was frightened – the war between Israel and Hizbullah was increasing and she had a bad dream that her family’s house was being bombed. When he sent his brother a nervous voice note from his apartment in Berut, he encouraged him to join an L. Delb, a sleeping village in southern Lebanon.

“It’s safe here,” he assured her. “Until the matter is calm, let’s be with us.”

Earlier that month, in response to the growing rocket attacks by the Iran -backed armed group, Israel intensified an air operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing citizens, and thousands of people were displaced from homes in northern Israel.

Ashraf was confident that his family’s apartment block would become heaven, so Julia also joined him. But the next day, on 29 September, it was the most deadly single Israeli attack of this struggle. The entire six -storey building collapsed in the Israeli missile attack, killing 73 people.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) says the building was targeted because it was Hizbullah’s “Terrorist Command Center” and “finishing” a Hizbullah commander. It said that from those killed in the attack, “overwhelming majority” was “confirmed” to be a “terrorist worker”.

But the BBC I investigation confirmed the identity of 68 of the 73 people killed in the attack and evidence revealed that only six were associated with the military branch of Hizbullah. None of the people we identified were in senior position. The BBC’s World Service also found that there were 62 other citizens – 23 of them were children.

The dead included only a few months of children, such as Noh Cobacy in Apartment -2B. School teacher Abir Halk was murdered with her husband and three sons in Apartment-1C. Three floors above, Amal Hokavati died with three generations of her family – her husband, children and two granddaughters.

Ashraf and Julia were always close, used to share everything with each other. He says, “She was like a black box in which all my secrets were hidden.”

On the afternoon of 29 September, siblings returned home by giving food to families who fled from the fight. Millions of people were displaced in Lebanon due to the war.

Ashraf was in the shower, and Julia was sitting in the living room with her father, and was helping her upload a video on social media. His mother was cleaning in reproduction, kitchen.

Just then, without any warning, he heard a deafening explosion. The entire building was shaken and a huge cloud of dust and smoke entered his apartment.

Ashraf says, “I shouted,” Julia! Julia! ”

“He replied, ‘I am here.’

“I looked at my father, who were struggling to get up from the couch due to injury to my leg, and I saw my mother running towards the front door.”

Julia’s nightmare was realizing in real life.

“Julia was hypervantlated, crying very loudly on the sofa. I was trying to calm her and told her that we need to get out. Then, there was another attack.”

Video footage of online shared and verified attack by BBC suggests that four Israeli missiles are flying in the air towards the building. A few seconds later, the block collapses.

Ashraf was caught in the rubble with many others. He started calling, but he could only hear his father’s voice, who told him that he could still listen to Julia and he is alive. None of them could hear Ashraf’s mother.

Ashraf sent a voice note to alert friends of the neighborhood. The next few hours were painful. He could listen to the rescuers by filtering debris – and could listen to the residents by mourning his loved ones dead. “I just kept thinking, please, God, not Julia. I can’t live this life without Julia.”

A few hours later, Ashraf was finally taken out of the rubble with minor injuries.

He came to know that his mother was rescued but died in the hospital. Julia was suffocated under the rubble. His father later told him that Julia’s last word was for his brother.

In November, the ceasefire agreement was agreed between Israel and Hizbullah with the aim of ending the conflict. The agreement gives the Israeli army a 60 -day time limit to the Israeli army to withdraw from the southern Lebanon and to withdraw its army and weapons from the north of the Litani River. As the 26 January deadline draws near, we tried to learn more about the most deadly single Israeli attack over Lebanon in years.

In the apartments below Julia and Ashraf, Howra and Ali Fares were hosting family members displaced by war. Havara’s sister Batul was also included, who came with her husband and two young children on the previous day like Julia. They escaped from acute bombing in areas near the Lebanon-Israel border, where there is a strong presence of Hezbollah.

Sayul says, “We were hesitating where to go.” And then I said to my husband, “Let’s go on an el delbb. My sister said that his building is safe and they are around- No one can listen to bombings. “

Bathaul’s husband Mohammad Fares was killed in the attack. A pillar fell on Bataul and his children. She says no one responded to her call for help. After all, she managed to lift it alone, but her four -year -old daughter Howra was badly crushed. Miraculously, his child survived.

Denis and Moheyaldin al-Baba lived below three floors from Bataul. That Sunday, Dennis invited his brother Hishham for lunch.

The impact of the strike was cruel, says Hishham.

“The second missile slammed me on the floor … the whole wall fell on me.”

He spent seven hours under the rubble.

“I heard a voice from a distance. People were talking. Shouting and … ‘cover her. Remove her. Pick it up. He is still alive. It’s a child. Pick up this child.’ I mean … Oh God, I thought in my mind, I am underground and no one will know about me. “

When Hishham was finally saved, he found that his niece’s fiancée was waiting to hear if he was alive. He lied to him and told him that he was fine. Three days later he found his body.

Hishham lost four members of his family – his sister, brother -in -law and his two children. He told us that he had lost his faith and now he does not believe in God.

To learn more about who died, we have analyzed conversations with the Data, Video, Social Media Posts of Lebanese Health Ministry as well as people in the attack.

We especially wanted to interrogate the media’s response to the media immediately after the attack – that the apartment block was Hizbullah Command Center. We asked the IDF several times what the command center is formed, but it did not give any clarification.

So we started investigating social media tributes, cemeteries, public health records and funeral videos to determine whether those killed in the attack had any military association with Hizbullah.

We could only find evidence that six of the 68 dead we identified were associated with the military branch of Hizbullah.

The “Mujahid” label is used in the Hezbollah Memorial Photo for six people, which means “fighter”. Conversely, senior individuals are called “Qaid”, meaning “commander” – and we did not find any such labels used by the group to describe those killed.

We asked the IDF if the six hesbollah fighters we have identified were targets of the attack. He did not answer this question.

One of the fighters we identified with Hizbullah was Batol’s husband, Mohammad Fores. Bataul told us that her husband, like many other men of the southern Lebanon, were a reserve for the group, although he also said that he was never paid by Hizbullah, he had no formal post, or He did not participate in the war.

Israel sees Hizbullah as one of its main threats and the group has been named a terrorist organization by Israel, many Western governments and Gulf Arab states.

But along with its big, armed military branch, Hizbullah is also an influential political party that has seats in the Lebanese Parliament. In many parts of the country it is woven in social fabric, which provides a network of social services.

In response to our investigation, the IDF said: “IDF attacks on military goals are subject to the relevant provisions of international law, including possible precautions, and after assessing it is done that the expected collateral damage and civil casualties are done after assessing it. The number is not excessive in relation to the military benefits expected from the attack. “

It had earlier also told the BBC that he had implemented “withdrawal procedures” for attack on An L. Delb, but whom we talked to, he said that he had not received any warning.

United Nations experts have expressed concern The proportionality and requirement of Israeli airstrikes on residential buildings In the densely populated areas of Lebanon.

This pattern of targeting the entire buildings – resulting in important citizens casualties – has been a recurring feature of Israel’s latest conflict with Hezbollah, which began when the group increased rocket attacks in response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

Between October 2023 and November 2024, Lebanese officials say more than 3,960 people were killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon, many of which were civilians. During the same period, Israeli officials say at least 47 civilians were killed from the southern Lebaneous Hezbollah rockets. At least 80 Israeli soldiers were also killed, resulting in fighting in the southern Lebanon or as a result of rocket attacks on northern Israel.

The missile attack in the Aen L. Delb is the most deadly Israeli attack on a Lebanon building in at least 18 years.

The village is frightened by its influence. When we went there after more than a month of the strike, a father went to the site every day in the hope of news of his 11 -year -old son, whose body was not yet found.

Ashraf Ramadan is also back to filter the debris, and find what the remains of memories made by his family during the two decades of living there.

He shows me the door of his wardrobe, which is still adorned with photographs of football players and pop stars, which he once praised. Then, he removes a teddy beer from the debris and tells me that it was always on his bed.

He says, “Everything I found here will not be able to make up for the people we have lost.”

Additional Reporting by Scarlet Barter and Jake Tachi