Israeli airstrike on Lebanon kills 3 Kurdish children from Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A funeral was held on Wednesday for three Kurdish children from Syria killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon.
The brothers Jan, 9, and Muhammad Jarkas, 6, and their cousin Khalil Khalil were killed on July 16 in an Israeli airstrike on the village of Umm al-Tut in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, the border between Lebanon and Israel witnesses frequent exchange of fire and attacks between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
Israel has not officially admitted to carrying out the attack, but it stated on Tuesday that it targeted a site linked to the Lebanese Hezbollah near the village.
The three children are from the city of Afrin in northwestern Syria. The two brothers’ family had fled Afrin after it was occupied by Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA) in March 2018 following a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch.”
The operation caused the displacement of about 300,000 of the original inhabitants of the Kurds of Afrin who have been taking shelter in more than 50 villages and five camps in Aleppo northern countryside, locally known as Shahba region, since then. Others took refuge in neighboring countries such as Lebanon.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said the killing of the three children as they were playing in front of their house was “horrific” and emphasized the importance of protecting children under international humanitarian law.