Miral Abdel Al Sater’s pink notebook flutters in the wind, surrounded by rubble and destruction. “Grade One, 2025/2026", it reads, referring to the year she hoped lay ahead. That was before Israel bombed her building and took away not only her school year, but her short life.
A torn piece of paper that resembles Elsa from the movie Frozen and a dust-covered seal toy are among the few belongings left behind by the young children who lived in the building, now dead or severely injured.
Miral is among the nine victims of a strike that destroyed a residential building in the centre of the historic city of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon, last Wednesday. Ali Assaf is the other child killed in the attack. His body is believed to be buried somewhere beneath the rubble, after rescuers searched for hours without success.
It remains unclear who the intended target was. Israel has not yet issued a statement on the deadly strike.
Miral and Ali are among 83 children killed in Israel’s major offensive on Lebanon in just one week, after Iran-backed Hezbollah joined the war against the US and Israel in support of Tehran.
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