After Atwi was killed on Sunday, the Lebanese army urged people against going to southern areas where its forces had not finished deploying, “in order to preserve their safety and avoid the death of innocent people”.
A number of people were trapped inside Hula overnight, until their exit could be safely coordinated on Monday, among them Fadi Koteish, 58.
“We entered (Hula) on Sunday, and suddenly the shooting started,” he told AFP.
“Women, children and young men started running in every direction — some went into the valleys, others hid in houses.”
He said he and his family couldn’t move “because of the intensity of the fire”.
“We slept the night there, hoping that UNIFIL or the Red Cross would come and get us out,” he said, referring to peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
Atwi’s family meanwhile had faced an excruciating wait before they were able to retrieve her body on Monday afternoon.
“I’ll carry her out on my own back — just let me go in,” her mother Haifa Hussein had said in tears before the family was able to enter the town.
“I don’t know anything about my daughter… can anyone accept her lying there on the ground?”
© 2025 AFP
