“Lebanon Debate”
The mayor of the western town of Sir, Ali Hassan Maatouq, summarizes the painful scene that the town woke up to, after it lost 21 of its people in a major massacre committed by the Israeli army at dawn today.
Maatouq confirms that an entire family was exterminated in this barbaric attack on the town, a family that had previously lost two martyrs in the last war, only to join them today in the same tragedy. He says: “Children, women and boys in the prime of their youth were unaware of the enemy at dawn today while they were sleeping. He not only bombed the building in which they lived, but also targeted a neighboring building, resulting in the martyrdom of three other people.”
He pointed out that the town was still inhabited, and that many did not respond to the Israeli army’s calls to evacuate, so treachery came upon them at dawn today. He explained that most of those who did not leave the town did not want to live the tragedy of displacement, especially after the scenes of displaced people on the roads, and the failure of many shelter centers to open for them, in addition to the insane rise in apartment prices and the refusal of some municipalities in safe areas to receive the displaced, which prompted many residents to prefer to remain in their homes.
Maatouq pointed out that the rescue teams and families worked to extract the victims from under the rubble, and the work of removing the rubble and recovering the martyrs, who numbered 21, had ended.
He stressed that the people of the town are experiencing great shock after the massacre, pointing out that the funeral of the martyrs will be carried out with the support of civil defense personnel and the people of the town.
The names of the martyrs were known: Muhammad Shaker Fawaz, Inaam Sayegh, Muhammad Ali Maatouq, Ahmed Hassan Maatouq, Khairallah Mahmoud Maatouq, Juri Ali Maatouq, Muhammad Ahmed Maatouq, Hassan Mahmoud Maatouq, Khairiya Ahmed Maatouq, Maysam Bilal, Fatima Hassan Maatouq, Shaker Ali Fawaz.
The Sir al-Gharbiyya massacre was not the only one, as yesterday also witnessed other massacres committed by the Israeli army in Khirbet Salam, Zibdin, Tuffaha and other towns in the south.
