Slain Lebanese schoolgirl sisters are latest victims of Mideast war
AYNATA, Lebanon (MNP) – Sisters Rimas, Taline and Lianne Chour were preparing to travel to Beirut for temporary schooling there because of escalating clashes between Israel and Hezbollah militants in their native southern Lebanon.
When they set off on Sunday, a missile Lebanon says Israel fired hit their car, killing all three and their grandmother, and leaving their mother wounded and confused.
“She was shouting, ‘where are my children, where are my children?'” said their uncle Samir Ayyoub, who witnessed the strike while he drove in convoy with them in his own car.
“The children were burning to death inside the vehicle.”
Ayyoub, a local journalist, spoke to Reuters on Monday as he picked through the wreckage of the car. He held up schoolbooks and bags charred in the blast.
“Are these the schoolbooks and bags of terrorists?” he said.
Lebanese authorities say Israel carried out the strike and that Beirut will submit a complaint to the United Nations over the killing of civilians.
Israel’s military said its troops engaged a vehicle in Lebanon on Sunday which was “identified as a suspected transport for terrorists”, and it was looking into reports there were civilians inside.
