this is the story of one attack on one building... ..the deadliest in lebanon in nearly two decades. it took the lives of 73 people and shattered those of countless others.

ashraf ramadan received a haunting voice note from his younger sisterjulia, just days before she returned to their family home.

on the morning of the 29th of september, they were distributing food to people who'd fled the conflict between israel and hezbollah in the south of lebanon. explosion ashraf and julia were staying in theirfamily home with their parents, abdul hamid and janan, who for more than 20 years have lived near the town of sidon in southern lebanon, in the small village of ain el delb. this peaceful village is now the site of the deadliest single attack in lebanon in almost two decades. we've spent weeks investigating what happened here — seeking answers from the israeli military and hezbollah,

analysing health ministry data, videos, social media posts and speaking with survivors and witnesses. we've reconstructed the building and identified more than 100 people in the 17 apartments when the block was hit. behind each door, a different story of pain and loss. julia, ashraf and their parents were in apartment aa. one floor below, in apartment 3a, hawra and ali fares were hosting family displaced by the war. batoul had just arrived to stay with her sister. she, like nearly a million others in lebanon, fled her home to escape fighting.

three floors below them, in —1a, denise al—baba lived with her husband mehyeddin and their two children, nermine and ali. that sunday, denise had invited her brother hisham over for a weekend lunch.

an israeli air strike hit the terrace of a ground floor apartment.

then — another strike. we've slowed the footage down to understand what happened. first, we see two missiles fly through the cloud of smoke towards the building. a second later, another missile. and another. in total, four israeli missiles, less than four seconds apart.

after seven hours under the rubble, the civil defence managed to reach hisham. an entire family killed in a moment. hisham lost his sister denise, her husband and their two children, 16—year—old ali and 23—year—old

nermine.

batoul�*s daughter, four—year—old hawra, was killed by the strike alongside her cousins, hasan and husayn. in total, eight members of the fares family were killed. she coos

ain el delb is a quiet residential neighbourhood. everyone i've spoken to felt safe here. they even invited family members to seek refuge here after fighting escalated in the south. they've also told me that they've never witnessed any hezbollah military activity. so why was this building targeted? everyone we've spoken to told us this was a residential building. did you feel safe in this building? but the idf told us the building was being used as a hezbollah terrorist command centre, and the strike was carried out in a precise manner, killing the commander of hezbollah�*s sidon compound

and several other operatives. it did not provide further information or evidence to support this. so, we searched through gravesites, social media tributes and videos of funerals to see if those killed in the attack were hezbollah commanders or operatives. we uncovered evidence suggesting six of the men killed in the attack were connected with hezbollah�*s military wing. their memorials label them "mujahid", or "fighter" — a broad designation that does not suggest seniority. senior figures are described as "qayid", or "commander", and we've not found anyone with this rank in the building. all six men we identified were labelled mujahid. we sent the idf their names and asked if they were

the targets of the strike. it did not respond to this question. one of the men was batoul�*s husband, mohammed fares. we asked her about this and she said that mohammed, like many other men in southern lebanon, was a hezbollah reservist. but she added that he'd never been paid by hezbollah, given rank or taken part in any fighting. hezbollah is one of israel's main threats and is designated a terror organisation by many western governments and gulf arab states. but alongside its well—armed military wing, hezbollah is also an influential political party, holding seats in the lebanese parliament. in parts of lebanon, hezbollah�*s woven into the social fabric, providing a range of social services. and while the group has hundreds of thousands of political supporters, its military wing is made up of an estimated 20 to 50,000 fighters.

after the attack, one saudi media outlet did suggest that one man, ahmed awarkeh, from apartment —2a, may have been the sidon commander and the target of the attack. we were able to find photos of ahmed awarkeh in military uniform... ..but found no evidence that confirmed he was a commander. so, we contacted hezbollah to ask if awarkeh was the commander of the sidon compound, or if any of those killed were hezbollah operatives. they did not respond. eyewitnesses told us awarkeh was smoking shisha on the terrace

where the first strike hit. he was killed instantly. but it was the following four missiles which caused the entire building to collapse, resulting in mass civilian casualties. to find out more about ahmed zaki, we went to meet his son mehdi and his mother fawziya. the lebanese ministry of health told us 73 people

were killed in the attack, the country's worst single incident in almost 20 years. we've been able to verify the identities of 68 of the 73

people killed that day. while six of those we identified were affiliated with hezbollah�*s military wing, we found no evidence that this was the case for more than 60 other people killed that day. 23 of them were children. the idf said it... but our investigation has shown that the majority of those killed in the strike were civilians... israel says it launched strikes in response to thousands of hezbollah rocket attacks from lebanon, which have killed israeli civilians and displaced tens of thousands from their homes. they added...

but un experts have questioned the proportionality and necessity of israeli air strikes on residential buildings in densely populated areas. screaming we examined ten of the deadliest israeli strikes on buildings in lebanon. they killed more than 200 people. in each case, we asked the idf why the building had been targeted. it told us...

..the tenth strike on a home in northern lebanon. the idf said it hit a building where a hezbollah terrorist was hiding. at least 28 people were killed in that attack. this pattern of striking entire buildings, leading to high civilian casualties, has been a feature of israel's war with hezbollah. but the attack in ain el delb remains the most deadly. hassan taher works in the local cemetery.

he buried the dead from the attack.

since october 2023, lebanese authorities say more than 3,900 people have been killed... ..many of them civilians. over the same period, israel says more than 80 israeli soldiers and 49 civilians have been killed. for now, a fragile ceasefire has held. no—one knows how long this relative peace will last. but for ashraf, there's little comfort.

is this yours? you're a christina aguilera fan?

hello there. another name storm as we start off the new working week. this time it's been named by the spanish met service because of the effects that it will have on the iberian peninsula. it's storm herminia, but also some impacts here across the united kingdom, heavy rain and some strong gusty winds. there are met office weather warnings in place, and this time it's the southern half of the uk that will bear the brunt of the worst of the weather over the next few days. so the storm's been brewing out in the atlantic. it's been pushing this massive cloud and outbreaks of very heavy rain at times further northwards and eastwards through the night, that hook on the rain producing potentially still some very squally gusts of wind of up to 60 to 80 miles an hour, but clearing into monday morning. so this is how we'll start off the day. perhaps still some hill snow. just as that rain curls into southern central areas of scotland, there will be squally showers out towards the west and some very strong gusty winds. heavier rain pushing eastwards from northern ireland into north west england and eventually up into southern and central

areas of scotland too. but very strong winds out towards irish sea coast of up to 60 to 70 miles an hour, also for some western channel coasts too, and some of these showers are likely to have some thunder, some lightning and some hail in them, some very heavy downpours and strong gusty winds. temperatures six to nine celsius tended to be drier and brighter across eastern areas of england. an improving picture somewhat on tuesday is the area of low pressure starts to weaken and fill, but there will still be plenty of showers swirling around. there won't be quite so potent as they will have been on monday, though, and there will be some brighter spells. also some areas of cloud, more of a northwesterly wind. still quite blustery, particularly towards those western coasts. temperatures between six and nine celsius for most of us, and that area of low pressure clears away, only to be followed by another one that this time is going to be bringing some heavy rain at times towards southern areas of england in particular. now there's still a lot of debate on how far north this rain is going to get, and if it does get further north than this, then over the higher ground, potentially there could be some snowfall. but for much of the northern half of the uk, largely dry. a few showers around. temperatures again six to nine

celsius on thursday, though a ridge of high pressure. so much more settled. conditions generally dry. there'll be some sunshine, more rain, potentially on friday and through the weekend. bye— bye.

— paving the way for displaced palestinians to return to northern gaza from monday. president trump and his colombian counterpart trade threats of tariffs — after colombia turned back two migrant deportation flights. and, we report from belarus, as the authoritarian leader, alexander lukashenko — ally of vladmir putin — looks to have overwhelmingly won the presidential election. hello i'm carl naasman. we begin with breaking news out of the middle east. israel says — hamas will hand over six more hostages this week, including civilian hostage arbel yehud. israel had accused hamas of breaching their ceasefire terms — when she wasn't released along with other hostages on saturday. in return, israel will allow displaced palestinians to return to northern gaza from monday morning. in other developments —