'Nothing will bring back my son': How 10 minutes of bombing by Israel shattered lives in Lebanon

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. 'Nothing will bring back my son': How 10 minutes of bombing by Israel shattered lives in Lebanon8 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleNawal Al-Maghafi Senior international investigations correspondent , LebanonBBCMohammed's son was crushed when a bomb caused upper floors to collapseIn the southern suburbs of Beirut, the neighbourhood of Hay el Sellom is barely recognisable. What was once a densely populated, lively community is now a landscape of collapsed concrete, twisted metal and exposed wires. Homes have been reduced to layers of rubble.

Staircases lead nowhere. The sounds of everyday life have been replaced by silence. Despite repeated Israeli attacks since the start of the Iran war on other parts of Beirut's southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds sway, residents say this neighbourhood remained calm until the afternoon of 8 April.

The Details

Beirut's southern suburbs had faced repeated Israeli evacuation orders and air strikes since the start of the war, but residents told us few people left Hay El Sellom, as they had nowhere to go. They also said that this neighbourhood had remained relatively calm. On that Wednesday, Mohammed's son Abbas was at home asleep when the building was hit by an Israeli air strike.

"The three floors above mine all fell into one room," Mohammed says. "They all came down together… on top of him. "It was part of a deadly wave of strikes that begun at 14.

15 local time and saw about 100 targets across Lebanon hit in the space of just 10 minutes, according to Israel. The destruction wrought in this brief window would surpass that of any other day in this war. The stated targets included Hezbollah command centres and military sites, but among the casualties were many ordinary Lebanese citizens.

What Experts Say

The death toll for the day reached 361, according to the Lebanese authorities, with more than 1,000 injured. 'This is the second home I've lost'In the weeks after the attack, the visited some of the areas hit to piece together what happened on that day. We met Mohammed in the ruins of his apartment.

"This is the second home I've lost," he says. "In the last war I lost a home. And in this war I lost another.

"I wish it was just my home that I lost, and that my son survived. This brick can be rebuilt. But nothing will bring back my son.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.