By Maya Gebeily and Emilie Madi
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Stepping into the burnt ruins of her home in central Beirut, Lebanese seamstress Laila Amayrad watched bulldozers take over a building that had been sealed off by Israeli air strikes days earlier, hoping the bodies of her friends would be found.
A major Israeli airstrike hit the densely populated neighborhood of Basta Fawqa in the Lebanese capital early on Saturday, killing at least 29 people, including children, making it the deadliest bombing in the city.
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On Monday afternoon, more than 48 hours later, civil defense workers were still excavating the remains of the eight-story building, now reduced to a large crater.
Amayrad, a fair-skinned woman wearing a red cloth, had lived in the area almost all her life. With tears in his eyes, he counted nine of the dead as friends, neighbors or customers, some of whom were hosting relatives displaced by Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon.
“They came here to be safe, because this place is safe. I would walk around alone in the middle of the night because there are no weapons, no soldiers, nothing here,” Amayrad told Reuters.
“And the victims were just sleeping at home, without warning. The innocent are the ones who are losing their lives in this.”
Israeli officials did not comment on the strike. Israel says it is targeting the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and that it is issuing an evacuation warning to people to reduce their risk before the bombing. It did not give a warning to leave before Basta Fawqa was beaten.
Amayrad joked that it would be safer to live in the southern suburbs of Beirut – once a densely populated area and Hezbollah stronghold – than in Basta.
“I Israel gives a warning then,” he said.
A Lebanese security source said a preliminary investigation showed the Nov. 23 at Basta Fawqa used an explosive device. Amayrad and another resident, Sherif Itani, who knew the building since they were children, said it did not have a living room.
A two-story building two buildings above had been hit on October 10, again without warning. Two separate attacks that evening in central Beirut killed at least 22 people, making it the deadliest yet to hit Basta.
On Monday afternoon, a dust-covered rescue worker climbed down from the rubble and plopped down on a plastic chair to light a cigarette, saying he was not sure if anyone would be found alive.
Rescuers said the strike was the worst in a year for Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, which have increased sharply since September. Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,750 people in the past year, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
The head of the rescue unit at the site, Hassan Yassin, told Reuters the head was found on Saturday.
“We took a leg here, an arm here. We took out the bodies of three children yesterday. We found two elderly dead, both in wheelchairs,” said Jaafar, an 18-year-old rescuer. “It was a terrible experience.”
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Angus MacSwan)