Lebanese bury 13 officers killed by Israel as grief and rage surge ahead of talks in the US

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Women in black screamed in grief and toddlers sobbed uncontrollably, calling out for their dead fathers and uncles. Men in uniforms, pistols strapped to their belts, wept openly for their comrades at the funerals on Saturday for 13 Lebanese state security officers killed in an Israeli airstrike the day before.

In the past week, similar funeral scenes have played out hundreds of times across Lebanon as Israel intensified attacks against what it says are Iran-backed Hezbollah infrastructure and militants.

The Israel-Hezbollah war — raging in the shadow of the larger U.S.-Israeli war on Iran — has so far killed more than 2,000 people in Lebanon and wounded thousands more.

But Friday’s killing of so many state security personnel at once, when an Israeli airstrike hit their office headquarters in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, has struck a particular nerve, coming just two days after Israeli strikes on Beirut and beyond killed over 350 people in one of the deadliest single bombing campaigns in crisis-wracked Lebanon's history.

“We just want protection,” said Adam Tarhini, a 20-year-old computer science student, whose father, Hassan Tarhini, was among the 13 killed in Friday's attack. “Israel wants to take our land and everything we have.”

Historic negotiations at a sensitive time

Grief and rage are soaring as Lebanon and Israel, which do not maintain diplomatic relations, prepare to start direct talks next week in the United States, for the first time in decades.

The prospect of those negotiations in Washington has sent anti-government protesters into the streets and piled pressure on Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who has demanded a truce as a condition for negotiations.

Israel insists the talks will focus on the disarmament of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and will not lead to a ceasefire.

On Saturday, Salam said he has postponed his planned trip to Washington, citing “the current internal situation." Salam’s absence should not affect the upcoming talks in the U.S. — the first round next week is expected to be at the ambassadorial level.

But the announcement that he would stay in Beirut to “preserve the security and unity of the Lebanese people” cast a spotlight on the awkward dynamic that the Lebanese government is navigating as it seeks to halt Israeli attacks without openly confronting the far stronger forces of either Israel or Hezbollah.

"This leaves the Lebanese government in a very difficult position,” said David Wood, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group.

“It will want to strike some kind of new arrangement with Israel to bring an end to this round of conflict, but at the same time not make such sweeping political concessions as to potentially provoke internal trouble in Lebanon,” Wood said.

A deadly strike reverberates

The strike crashed into the state security headquarters just minutes after 14 officers returned from what would be their last mission — transferring detainees from the southern town to a safer facility in the coastal city of Sidon, further north. The one surviving officer is being treated for severe burns.

Among the youngest was 25-year-old Khalil al-Miqdad, who celebrated his wedding three days before he was killed. His bride, Amani, staggered through the crowds of mourners in a daze, clutching a smiling photo from their wedding day.

“They killed Khalil. They killed my love," she said, her anguish erupting into a shriek.

In response to a request for comment on the attack, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah militant infrastructure in Nabitiyeh on Friday and was “aware of reports regarding harm to Lebanese security personnel.” It said it was investigating the incident.

On Saturday, families of the buried officers flung themselves onto their temporary cinder block gravesites on a hill overlooking the Shiite village of Haret Saida, neighboring Sidon. Several mourners who collapsed, overcome with grief, were carried away on stretchers.

Like most of their fellow villagers, they were too frightened to return home to bury their dead as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Lebanese territory. Israeli attacks and blanket evacuation orders have uprooted more than 1 million people across Lebanon.

Even the main cemetery in Nabatiyeh came under attack a few weeks ago, residents said, forcing them to resort to these temporary graves in cities like Sidon, where many of the displaced have taken refuge.

Anger rises ahead of the talks

Both the mourners in Sidon and the protesters in Beirut on Saturday blame the government almost as much as Israel for the recent deaths of so many civilians and state workers.

They cite the state's failure to protect its people as the reason Lebanon needed Hezbollah to resist Israel's invasion and what they fear are plans for a longer-term Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.

The underfunded Lebanese army, maintaining a position of neutrality in the Israeli-Hezbollah war, has withdrawn from several southern positions as Israel accelerates its invasion. Still, Israeli strikes killed four Lebanese soldiers this week.

As Ali Akbar Velayati, a top Iranian official, warned against the dangers of “ignoring the unparalleled role” of Hezbollah’s armed wing, protesters burned the prime minister’s portrait in downtown Beirut.

“No one wants negotiations with people who killed our friends, our colleagues, our family,” said Abbas Saleh, a 26-year-old rescue worker from Nabitiyeh who attended the officers’ funerals, balking at the idea of the Lebanese government normalizing relations with Israel or negotiating to disarm Hezbollah.

The Israeli army is being "held back by people who are defending the land," he said — meaning Hezbollah.