Sidon, Lebanon – In the small village of Ain al-Delb in southern Lebanon, a doll in a red dress, yearbooks and tiny slippers lay on top of a mountain of rubble.

Other personal belongings are scattered around the remains of a residential building that, just over a week ago, was flattened in an Israeli strike, burying dozens of men, women and children under slabs of thick concrete.

Seventy-one people were killed and over 58 wounded – the single deadliest strike on record since Israel and Hezbollah began fighting on 8 October 2023.

A funeral for those who died was held on 1 October, where mourners put them to rest in a mass grave in the nearby city of Saida.

“The building was full of families who weren’t active in any military activities,” the Mufti [Muslim legal expert] of Saida, Salim Soussan, told Middle East Eye from his office in the city.

Soussan heads the organisation of burials in the southern city. According to Islamic practice, the body of the deceased is usually washed, covered with a white cotton shroud, and then prayed over before burial. But Israel’s strike on Ain al-Delb left some of “the bodies dismembered”, making it impossible to perform the Islamic burial rituals, the religious leader said. 

The horrors of Ain al-Delb were not the only ones Soussan has witnessed since Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon over two weeks ago.

He said he buried around 10 people who were killed on 23 September, when Israel carried out heavy bombardments across the country – their bodies had also been so severely damaged that they were unidentifiable. 

Lebanon’s health ministry announced on 4 October that Israeli attacks have killed over 2,000 people, including 127 children and 261 women.

The Israeli military says its attacks are aimed at Hezbollah targets, but there have been mass civilian casualties and civilian infrastructure, ambulances and civil defence personnel have also been hit.