A woman known only as “Rahma,” who is believed to be of Sri Lankan origin, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon, Newswire reported on Saturday citing Al Jazeera, with the Sri Lankan embassy in Beirut still working to verify her nationality.
The woman had reportedly refused to leave southern Lebanon despite the ongoing Israeli campaign, choosing instead to stay behind to care for abandoned cats and dogs in her area, regional reports said. Social media posts said she was killed in a recent Israeli strike on the area around Habbouch in Nabatieh district.
Embassy sources told EconomyNext that her body was being held at Najde Hospital in Nabatieh, the city closest to Habbouch, and that the mission together with a humanitarian organisation was seeking permission from Lebanese authorities and defence forces to access the city to verify the deceased’s identity. Neighbours had identified her as Sri Lankan and said she had lived in Lebanon for the past 25 years, but no Sri Lankan contacts had been found on her mobile phone, the sources said.
The killing comes a day after the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Affairs Division issued a public appeal asking for help to identify an individual believed to be Sri Lankan known only as “Rahma” — the same name now attached to the deceased — so that her family could be traced.
Around 25 Sri Lankans were evacuated from southern Lebanon two weeks before the latest Israeli operations, according to EconomyNext, but an estimated 7,500 Sri Lankan migrant workers — most of whom have lived in the country for more than a decade — remain across Lebanon. Israel has now occupied roughly 608 square kilometres of Lebanese territory and continues operations across the south despite the ceasefire framework brokered with US mediation, with recent strikes killing multiple civilians, Al Jazeera reported.
Colombo had not issued an official statement on the reported death as of late Saturday.
