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Lebanese woman's daughter dies in Israeli strike, but she saves son, others

ALEY, Lebanon - Rabab Youssef managed to pull her son alive from the rubble in the Lebanese village of Qana. She could do nothing for her daughter.

“I was calling out to her: ‘Where are you Zeinab?’ I heard no reply. I found the hand of a child raised up,” she said, drawing a deep breath and holding back tears. “I felt her and I knew she was dead. I said: ‘My child, I can’t help you.’”

Rabab’s 6-year old daughter was one of dozens of children killed in their sleep by an Israeli air strike on Sunday on a building where more than 60 civilians were sheltering.

But, Human Rights Watch listed the names of 28 known dead from the attack and said that 13 others were missing and might still be buried under the rubble. The discrepancy was attributed to more people surviving than originally listed, the group said.

Like many other villagers, Rabab felt it would be the safest place to escape air strikes which had pounded south Lebanon since war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on July 12.

She and her son, Hassan, since evacuated by relatives to the relative safety of the mountain town of Aley above Beirut, were among the few survivors.

“He was half covered in rubble. I was too, but I could move my hands. I started throwing the rubble off my son,” said Rabab, the four-year-old at her side, his head wrapped in bandages.

“The neighbors came to see if there was anyone they could help. I said: ’My son -- take him.’”

Rabab, 40, then dug herself out of the debris. Her disabled husband, now in hospital, lay face down, calling for help. “I pulled him up as much as I could so he could breathe,” she said. Then she rescued a neighbor.