Survivors remember Qana massacre
‘My children were killed … I cannot forget them’

Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star correspondent

The southern village of Qana on Friday commemorated the 1996 massacre in which more than 100 Lebanese were killed by an Israeli artillery bombardment.
Mohammed Bourji, 13, was only six years old when he lost both his parents during the attack on two UNIFIL shelters where local residents were taking refuge from Israeli raids during an 18-day onslaught.
Mohammed was one of dozens of children who lost their parents or loved ones due to the Israeli bombardment, which fell on compounds that were used by UNIFIL’s Fijian contingent. Some of the people hiding in the shelters were burned to death, while others were mutilated, handicapped or seriously wounded.
Among other Israeli atrocities was the shelling of an apartment bloc in Al-Nabatieh al-Fawqa, where an entire family perished except for the mother.
“I was eating and playing in my mother’s lap while my sister Zeinab, who was 11 then, was talking to her friends,” Mohammed said.
It was an experience he would remember for the rest of his life, he said, when he heard the explosions and saw the flash of a shell.
“I looked at my mother but I could not find her. I am still waiting for her,” he said, adding that his father and “aunts, grandfather and other relatives” also perished in the attack.
Sitting near Mohammed, who was not hurt in the attack, was Saadallah Balhas, who lost 13 members of his family. Every now and then Saadallah raised his hands to the sky and said “they all went to heaven.” Around his neck were pictures of the victims.
While a band played mournful music, Kheirieh Bourji sat in a wheelchair, disabled as a result of the Israeli attack in which she lost her hands and a foot. She also lost her children and grandchildren.
Bourji could not stop crying.
“My children were killed. See their pictures and see me. Seven years have passed and I cannot forget them,” she said.
On Friday, many people converged on Qana in remembrance of the massacre and local Scouts staged a march.
Children carried pictures of the victims of the massacre and a poster with images of Qana, Jenin and Baghdad. “The victims were the same. The crime was the same, and the weapon was the same,” the poster said.
On arriving at the graveyard, the children’s march was received by several MPs and Speaker Nabih Berri’s wife Randa, who Berri laid a wreath on the tomb of the victims.

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