A Syrian man buries his wife and 4 children killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut

Mourners pray over the six coffins of members of the Al-Jalib family, who were killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes in Beirut, during their funeral in the village of al-Sour, Deir al-Zour province, northeastern Syria, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed) 2026-04-11T12:50:35Z DEIR EL-ZOUR, Syria (AP) — A Syrian man on Saturday buried his wife and four of his five children, killed in the massive wave of Israeli strikes that pounded Beirut earlier this week, laying them to rest in Deir el-Zour province in northeastern Syria. It was not the homecoming they had anticipated when they fled to Lebanon six years ago. The bodies, along with that of his six-month pregnant daughter-in-law, arrived in wooden coffins on a bus from Lebanon, their names scribbled on the sides. Men stood beside the bus crying before the burial procession in al-Sour town, as mourners gathered to offer condolences. The remains of one of his two daughters were still missing, believed to be trapped under rubble, as search operations concluded Saturday, three days after the attacks. The strike was one of roughly 100 carried out by Israel on Wednesday without warning, targeting what the Israeli military said were Hezbollah-linked sites across Beirut and other parts of Lebanon. More than 350 people were killed that day, a third being women and children, making it the deadliest day in nearly six weeks of war. Many of the strikes hit commercial streets and densely populated neighborhoods in central Beirut, far from conflict zones, where repeated Israeli evacuation warnings have been issued since March 2, when the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. A father’s grief The father, Hamad al-Jalib, survived because he was away fetching a gas canister while working as the building’s concierge. When he heard that a strike had hit the Ain Mreisseh neighborhood, where he lives, he rushed back, only to see a plume of smoke rising from a building behind a mosque across from Beirut’s famous seaside promenade — usually crowded with people walking and exercising. “The Israeli attack killed my girls, they are innocent, just sitting at home,” al-Jalib said. “They were having lunch.” He said it took rescue teams three days to extract the bodies of his family from under the rubble. “And I still have a daughter missing, her name is Fatima Hamad al-Jalib.” She is 10 years old. His other daughter was 12 while his sons were 17, 14 and 13 years old. (