The killing of five-year-old Amal has sparked outrage and sorrow in the country
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“What can I say about Amal? What can I possibly say? Look at her eyes; they speak for themselves,” Fardous Saeed lamented, staring at a picture of her five-year-old daughter, Amal Al Dorr, who was killed by an Israeli air strike on Wednesday in Majdal Zoun, in southern Lebanon.
On Thursday, family members came to offer their condolences at the family’s residence in Tyre. The southern Lebanese port city has been largely spared from the continuing exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah which began on October 8 when the Lebanese militant group opened a new front against Israel, amid the devastating war in Gaza.
The family living room is crowded with women mourning the death of the little girl in a solemn atmosphere, yet Ms Saeed, hunched over the picture of her daughter, is not paying attention to her surroundings.
She has only eyes for Amal’s picture, which she is addressing in a long litany, interrupted only by uncontrollable tears.
“Oh my God, my love, please come visit me in my dreams. You used to call me, ‘my heart’, but don’t call me ‘my heart’ when you come, because my heart has died, Amal. They buried my heart. It’s gone. I’m just a body without a soul.”
Her voice cracks into a desperate wail.
“I’m only standing for your sisters, Zaynouba and Mariam, who witnessed your death, who saw me carrying you. I hope they forget everything she saw. Has anyone else carried their daughter like I did? My heart, you were only five,” she said, holding her two daughters, who survived the attack.
Amal is the seventh child killed by Israel in Lebanon as the border conflict increases and civilian casualties mount. Hezbollah is allied to Hamas in Gaza, where Israel has mounted a ground invasion amid relentless bombardment, killing more than 29,600 Palestinians following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people.
Four months into the conflict, Israel has intensified its strikes deeper inside Lebanon amid accusations of “unlawful strikes” and “apparent indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians,” according to Human Rights Watch.
“I hope no one else loses their child like I did. I’m willing to suffer alone from now on, as long as I’m the last one. Amal, my love, my soul, my daughter, my everything, what more can I say about Amal?,” the mother repeats, tightly clutching the girl’s picture until a piercing wail from another mourner who just entered the room interrupts her.
Amal and her family fled Majdal Zoun, a small town located only a couple of kilometres from the border, to Tyre in the early stages of the Lebanon-Israel border conflict, her family told media. They are among 70,000 displaced from the southern border, who sought refuge in safer areas.
But, four months into the war, as a fragile calm settled over the village with most residents choosing to stay, Amal’s family decided to return for a holiday to visit their relatives.
“Amal insisted on visiting us, she said she missed us. The weather was nice, she wanted to play,” her aunt, Manal Al Dorr, recalls. Amal, her parents, and sisters were visiting Ms Al Dorr when the strike happened.
“I hugged her, kissed her, and played with her in the house,” Ms Al Dorr says. “Then she said goodbye and she left the house to get lunch at her grandmother’s.”
At that moment, an Israel strike completely flattened an inhabited building next to Ms Al Dorr, killing the little girl and neighbour, Khadija Salman, who were sitting outside with Amal’s mother and sisters.
“Everything happened in a second. And she was gone.”
Ms Al Dorr rushed outside her house to find a scene of chaos, filled with smoke, blood, and destruction, she said. Amal was seriously wounded. “When I saw her, I knew she would not survive.” She later succumbed to her injuries.
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