Family of Canadian couple killed in Lebanon describes ‘horrific scenes’

Canadian citizens Daad and Hussein Tabaja, 69 and 75, were among those killed in Israeli strikes on Monday. Their sons told Global News of the harrowing ordeal to identify them.

The son of a Canadian couple killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Monday said he had to witness “horrific scenes” just to be able to identify his parents’ bodies.

Daad and Hussein Tabaja, 69 and 75, were among those killed in Israeli strikes on Monday. The Tabajas first came to Canada in 1989 but had to go back to Lebanon because they couldn’t secure permanent resident status. In 1995, they were able to move and eventually became Canadian citizens.

Over the last few years, the former Ottawa residents had been living in southern Lebanon to spend time with their grandchildren.

Israeli strikes Monday on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, Lebanese authorities said. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.

Thousands of Lebanese fled the south, and the main highway out of the southern port city of Sidon was jammed with cars heading toward Beirut in the biggest exodus since 2006.

When reports started coming in that Israeli forces were targeting the region, Jamal Tabaja called his parents.

“I called my parents and I told them, please come down to me,” Tabaja, a Lebanese-Canadian who now lives in Beirut, said in an interview with Global News.

His brother Kamal, also a Canadian and who lives in Bahrain, said, “The last message from them was around 5:30 p.m (local time on Monday).”