A 9-Year-Old Girl Killed in Pager Attack Is Mourned in Lebanon

by · NY Times

A 9-Year-Old Girl Killed in Pager Attack Is Mourned in Lebanon

“The enemy killed us using this small device!” mourners chanted at the funeral for Fatima Abdullah, a fourth grader.

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By Hwaida Saad and Liam Stack

Hwaida Saad reported from Saraain, Lebanon.

The funeral for Fatima Abdullah, who was killed when a pager exploded in her home, in Saraain, Lebanon, on Wednesday.
Credit...Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Mourners gathered in the village of Saraain on Wednesday for the funeral of the youngest confirmed victim of the pager attack in Lebanon: 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah.

“The enemy killed us using this small device!” mourners chanted as they made their way through the dry grass of a cemetery. “They killed our child Fatima!”

Zeinab Mousawi, an aunt, said Fatima had just come home from her first day of fourth grade not long before the attack. Many of the mourners were Fatima’s school friends, their faces contorted with grief and shock at the violent death of someone so young.

She was one of two children killed in the attacks on Tuesday that Lebanese officials said had left at least 12 people dead, and that injured nearly 2,800 others. Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said on Wednesday that a second child had died from injuries sustained in the attack. Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group whose members were the apparent target of the explosions, named the second child as Bilal Kanj, 11.

In the attack, pagers across Lebanon simultaneously exploded at 3:30 p.m.

American and other officials briefed on the operation said on Tuesday that Israel had programmed the devices to beep for several seconds before exploding. The victims included nearly 300 people who suffered critical injuries — mostly wounds to the eyes, face and limbs — and others who lost hands or fingers, Dr. Abiad said.

Israel has not confirmed or denied involvement in the explosions.

Fatima was in the kitchen on Tuesday when a pager on the table began to beep, her aunt said. She picked up the device to bring it to her father and was holding it when it exploded, mangling her face and leaving the room covered in blood, she said.

“Fatima was trying to take courses in English,” Ms. Mousawi said. “She loved English.”

Her funeral was held in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a rural area on the border with Syria that is known as a deep well of support for Hezbollah. Many of the injuries on Tuesday occurred in the Bekaa Valley, in southern Lebanon and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the capital, all known as Hezbollah strongholds.

Before walking to the cemetery, mourners gathered in the town square, where women wiped tears from the face of Fatima’s weeping mother. A local religious leader led them in a prayer and beseeched God for justice.

Sumaya Mousawi, Fatima’s cousin, said at least 30 people in her hometown of Nabi Sheet were injured in the attack, many in the eyes or stomach. He said Israel would pay for what it had done.

“We are not afraid — the enemy is hiding in shelters, we are not,” he said. “We have missiles, we are strong and we are ready for war.”

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