Beirut [Lebanon], November 14: The rescue workers had just left when we arrived at the scene of an Israeli air strike on a building in Aramoun, southwest of Lebanon's capital Beirut.
It was supposed to have been cleared. They had found eight bodies - including three children and three women - and taken the many injured to hospitals; some were in critical condition.
They were pointing at a balcony on the second floor, which was destroyed and had crumbled onto the collapsed floor below.
A young man climbed onto the mound of rubble. He reached the spot, moved some of the rubble, and then held something up that could not be identified from a distance.
The multi-story building that was hit is located in a residential area.
We were told that most of the people there were internally displaced, mainly from the south of the country or the southern suburbs of Beirut.
They are areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence and which have been frequently targeted by Israel during its war with the Iran-backed political and military group.
Aramoun is a religiously mixed area and until Wednesday it was deemed safe because it had not been hit before. The dawn strike came without warning.
She had sought refuge in her uncle's house in Aramoun after Israel started bombing Beirut's southern suburbs. Another woman in her 80s was being rushed to a car.
She had moved to Aramoun a month ago, also from Beirut's southern suburbs.
After the strike, she left with everyone else in the building and spent two or three hours in their car on the street.
When we saw her, she was collecting some of her possessions. She told us she was very scared and was moving once more.
This time, she said, she was going to her son's place. He is displaced as well.
The Israeli military has not yet said who or what it targeted in Aramoun.
But the strike bore similarities to several in other parts of the country: launched without warning on residential buildings or houses hosting displaced people. The Israeli military has said many of those strikes have targeted Hezbollah infrastructure.
The attacks are causing increasing social unease within host communities, with residents voicing concern over the possibility of Israel targeting displaced people living among them or others visiting, often to deliver financial assistance.
Such comments have become more common following the recent series of Israeli strikes in various parts of the country which are outside the known areas of hostilities.
But at the same time there are increasing calls in Lebanon for national unity as well as warnings that such strikes from Israel could be purposely designed to create that social unease.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
