Standing before their devastated building in central Beirut, childhood neighbours Wael Sabbagh and Ghida Krisht vow to fight for justice after an Israeli strike killed their family members. On April 8, hours after a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran, Israel launched a massive wave of airstrikes across Lebanon including the heart of the capital, killing more than 350 people.Sabbagh's mother and brother, and Krisht's parents and another relative, were killed in a strike on a building in central Beirut's well-off Tallet al-Khayat district, on what Lebanese now refer to as Black Wednesday.Their parents had lived there for decades and thought they would be safe."I lost my mother, my brother, my home, my childhood," said Sabbagh, 52, a businessman who now lives in Mexico.Through images online, he came to the heart-wrenching realisation that his family's building had been struck. "Nine people were killed in the building... It gets talked about as if they were just numbers, but they were our loved ones," he said, lighting one cigarette after another.Sabbagh said he and Krisht are putting together a legal file to demand justice even though "the road will be long"."There are people that do not have the emotional capacity... the financial ability, people that are not connected in any way to be able to reach any accountability," he said."We do have a voice, we are connected, we are emotionally strong, in spite of everything that's happened to us, to demand accountability."- 'My brother's bracelet' -In the ruins, Sabbagh picked out bits of his family's shattered life -- a scrap of his mother Afaf's bedspread, chunks of wooden furniture from their dining room, a red sofa cushion.
Families of Beirut strike victims vow to fight for justice
Standing before their devastated building in central Beirut, childhood neighbours Wael Sabbagh and Ghida Krisht vow to fight for justice after an Israeli strike killed their family members. On April 8, hours after a ceasefire was announced between the United States and Iran, Israel launched a massive wave of airstrikes across Lebanon including the heart of the capital, killing more than 350 people.












