The son of a Canadian couple killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Monday said he had to witness “horrific scenes” just to be able to identify his parents’ bodies.
Daad and Hussein Tabaja, 69 and 75, were among those killed in Israeli strikes on Monday. The Tabajas first came to Canada in 1989 but had to go back to Lebanon because they couldn’t secure permanent resident status. In 1995, they were able to move and eventually became Canadian citizens.
Over the last few years, the former Ottawa residents had been living in southern Lebanon to spend time with their grandchildren.
Israeli strikes Monday on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Lebanese authorities said. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.
When reports started coming in that Israeli forces were targeting the region, Jamal Tabaja called his parents.
“I called my parents and I told them, please come down to me,” Tabaja, a Lebanese-Canadian who now lives in Beirut, said in an interview with Global News.
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His brother Kamal, also a Canadian and who lives in Bahrain, said, “The last message from them was around 5:30 p.m (local time on Monday).”
He said this was unusual for his father, Hussein Tabaja, who Kamal said was a very meticulous person. When the reports of the bombings got worse, he called his brother.
“I told my brother… you have got to go up to the hospitals,” he said.
Jamal Tabaja, who went to hospitals to find his parents said, “I never thought I would have to go through this in my life.”
He described the harrowing situation at the hospital.
“The horrific images of the bodies, the headless, the limbless… I can’t describe the scenes that I had to see to find my parents,” he said, “You shouldn’t have to go through 50 corpses, identifying people, to see if one of them or two them are your parents.”
The bodies he found at the hospital were charred beyond recognition, but Jamal said authorities asked him if they could identify his parents’ car.
Sure enough, he identified their silver BMW and called his brother in Bahrain.
Kamal said, “They took up the plate, looked up the numbers from the back. It was the same car. They found my mother’s watch inside the vehicle as well, too.”
But the harrowing ordeal was not over for the family.
“The ministry won’t release anything unless you do a DNA test, and (I told my brother) that’s what you have to do,” said Kamal.
After the DNA test confirmed their worst fears, the brothers had the difficult task of letting everyone else in the family know.
“Telling your sisters and your family relatives, especially their grandkids, that was the most difficult part. They just wouldn’t accept it,” Kamal said.
“I don’t need to say that this is not humane. This is not humanity. This is not justice,” Jamal said, “I really hope that no one would have to go through this in their life. It’s not fair for anyone.”
Foreign Minister Melanie Joly spoke with both brothers and offered condolences on behalf of the Canadian government.
“This morning, I spoke with Jalal and Kamal, the sons of Canadian citizens Daad and Hussein Tabaja. I condemn the killing of these two innocent people who were fleeing violence in an IDF strike. We refuse to let civilians bear the cost of this conflict,” Joly said in a post on the social media platform X on Thursday.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Monday’s strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 people — a staggering one-day toll for a country still reeling from a deadly attack on communication devices last week.
By Friday, the death toll in Lebanon had climbed to 700 just this week
— With files from The Associated Press, as well as Global’s Kieron O’Dea and Jeff Semple
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