Zeinab discusses details of the Massacre of Marwahin

"I called my father but got no reply ... "

Saida

Translated from Assafir, July 24, 2006

Soon, in the future, this war waged by Israel on the South and on Lebanon will stop. It shall be seen who has survived in the villages that have seen massacres and horror stories and terrible human tragedies. Israel killed in cold blood 23 people in one go, although it had warned and ordered them to leave. When they left their home, they were faced with bombs fired from the sea and from above. Those remaining alive fled to the secondary girls school in Saida (Sidon), and were cared for by the Hariri Foundation.

Ibrahim Abdallah discusses how village residents received warnings to leave the village and how they went to the United Nations post, which refused them. "The situation was extremely difficult. We were in a convoy of children, sheiks, and women, and the bombing fell around us. We returned to the village and did not know where to go. Our screaming children forced us to find a place. "

Zeinab, an 18 year old who lost all her family - mother, father, brothers and sisters, and others in the massacre - escaped death, although she sustained injuries in her abdomen and her hand. She tells of her story, and how she saved around 115 people in her home town. She cried as she discusses how as they were leaving, bombs fell around them. Their pickup failed, and her father went down to fix it. She began to run, but the warship was aiming at where they were, and as she went back to tell her parents that, she saw that they were immersed in their own blood. Her father did not answer her ... he had been killed.

She found her brother's sons, Hussein, Hassan, Mohammad, Ali, and Mahmoud, and her sister and sister-in-law, and her uncle's wife and children. All their corpses were either torn to pieces or were burnt. She heard others scream. "What can I do, 28 people were killed in this massacre; 23 of those came from two families."

Zeinab adds "Israeli planes raided our convoy again to kill those that weren't killed with the previous bombing. The planes dropped bombs with nails and other fragments which injured my stomach and hand. I began to bleed, but still tried to escape regardless of my injuries. I found by brother's daughter Lara - not older than 4 years old - next to her mother, who was completely burnt. This child was not just crying, but also screaming. I also found my uncle's child - around 8 years old - who was still clinging onto life, and I held them both and pulled both of them with me for more than 150 meters. I thought we would also be killed, since the bombs sounded as if they were approaching us. I then saw a convoy of cars coming towards us. I stopped in the middle of the road and told them to return, since Israel killed all of my family."

Another villager then intervened to say "Zeinab was able to save 115 people from the village who were all part of the same convoy. She told us to return and to not complete the journey. Lara always asks about her mother and siblings, and cries. Another survivor - more than 70 years old - cries and screams and asks for her husband, who was lost in Marwahin ... she doesn't know what happened to him, and wishes that she did. She also lost 9 people from her family in this massacre."

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Comment: For another "incident", read the story published by the Guardian. (Click here)

posted by Lazarus, 7:50 AM