Two-year-old Ali Khalifeh, the sole survivor of his family, lies amputated, bandaged, and connected to a respirator in a bed at Alaa Addin Hospital in the southern Lebanese town of Sarafand on November 5, 2024. — AFP
Rescuers did not anticipate finding two-year-old Ali Khalifeh alive after an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon claimed the lives of his entire family and left him buried under the rubble for 14 hours. Amputated, bandaged, and attached to a respirator in a hospital bed far too large for him, 'Ali is the sole survivor of his family,' stated Hussein Khalifeh, his father's uncle. The toddler's parents, sister, and two grandmothers all died in the strike on October 29, weeks after Israel intensified its attacks on Hezbollah militants. The strike on Sarafand, approximately 15km south of the coastal city of Sidon, flattened an apartment complex and killed 15 people, many of whom were relatives, according to residents.
'Rescue workers had nearly given up hope of finding anyone alive under the rubble,' Khalifeh, 45, told AFP from the hospital in Sidon where his two-year-old relative was being treated. But then 'Ali emerged from the debris in the shovel of the bulldozer, after we all thought he had perished,' he said. 'He came out of the rubble, barely breathing, after 14 hours.'
Israel has been at war with Hezbollah since late September, expanding its war focus from fighting Hamas militants in Gaza to securing its northern border with Lebanon. An escalating Israeli air campaign, following nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border fire, has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 people across Lebanon since September 23, according to health ministry figures. Signs of the violence were evident even at the hospital in Sidon where Ali was rushed to following the strike on Sarafand. The toddler, under a medically induced coma after doctors amputated his right hand, has since been transferred to a medical facility in the capital Beirut where he is scheduled to undergo pre-prosthetic surgery.
'Ali was sleeping on the couch at home when the strike hit. He is still asleep today... we are waiting to complete his surgeries before waking him up,' said the relative Hussein Khalifeh. Other family members were also struggling to survive after the Sarafand strike. One of Khalifeh's nieces, 32-year-old Zainab, was trapped under the rubble for two hours before being rescued and transferred to the nearest hospital, according to Khalifeh. It was there that she learned her parents, husband, and three children, aged between three and seven, had all been killed. The strike left her with only one severely injured eye.
Zainab said she 'did not hear the sounds of the missiles that rained down on her family's home,' according to Khalifeh. 'She only saw darkness and heard deafening screams,' he said. Ali Alaa El Din, a doctor treating her, stated that 'the psychological scars Zainab suffered are far greater than her physical injury.' He has also treated Zainab's sister Fatima, 30, who was wounded in the same strike. Both had injuries 'throughout their bodies, with fractures in the feet and damage to the lungs,' said the doctor. Medically, he added: 'Zainab and Fatima's cases are not the most difficult we have faced during the war, but they are the most severe from a psychological and human perspective.'
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