A Syrian man on Saturday buried his wife and four of his five children who were killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut earlier this week, laying them to rest in Deir el-Zour province in northeastern Syria.

Hamad al-Jalib lost his family when Israeli forces struck the Ain Mreisseh neighborhood in central Beirut on Wednesday. The bodies, along with that of his six-month pregnant daughter-in-law, arrived in wooden coffins on a bus from Lebanon. His 10-year-old daughter Fatima remains missing, believed to be trapped under rubble as search operations concluded Saturday.

Al-Jalib survived because he was away fetching a gas canister while working as the building's concierge. When he heard about the strike, he rushed back to see smoke rising from the building. "The Israeli attack killed my girls, they are innocent, just sitting at home," al-Jalib said. "They were having lunch." His other children were ages 12, 13, 14, and 17.

The strike was part of approximately 100 Israeli attacks carried out Wednesday targeting what the Israeli military said were Hezbollah-linked sites across Beirut and other parts of Lebanon. More than 350 people were killed that day, with a third being women and children, making it the deadliest day in nearly six weeks of conflict.

The al-Jalib family had moved to Lebanon in 2020 after being displaced from their area due to local tensions involving tribal groups and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The casualties have pushed the death toll in Israel's conflict with Hezbollah to over 1,950 killed and more than 6,300 wounded, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, including at least 315 Syrians.

There are approximately 530,000 Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR in Lebanon, with hundreds of thousands more believed to be unregistered. While many Syrians have returned home since the December 2024 ouster of former President Bashar Assad, others remain reluctant due to lack of jobs and ongoing violence.