“Everyone Was in Shock”: At the Scene of the Hay el-Raml Massacre
On April 8, 2026, Israeli strikes across Lebanon killed at least 357 people and wounded over 1,200 others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. That day, the U.S.-Iran ceasefire was supposed to also mean a ceasefire in Lebanon — but Israel launched a fire belt across the country instead.
Photographer Hasan Fneich, reporting from Sour, southern Lebanon, gave his testimony of the rescue efforts following an Israeli massacre in Hay el-Raml. His voice messages were translated and edited for clarity.
Fneich’s account is one of three testimonies The Public Source has collected from photographers on the ground documenting Israel’s terrorist aggression on Lebanon on “Black Wednesday.”
Location: Hay el-Raml, Sour, South Lebanon
At 6 p.m., when Fneich was resting by the sea like everyone else in Sour, he sent us his first voice note:
Oh, nothing. The strike hit. We were trying to figure out how far or close it was — and then we moved closer. I saw the smoke and the ambulances racing out. I followed them and stayed with them.
There are still about two families under the rubble that rescuers are still searching for. The Civil Defense, the Islamic Health Authority, and al-Risala Scouts — everyone is searching while bulldozers work. We stayed for about two hours, until a new warning was issued for the same building where the rescue teams were working, so we had to evacuate. That was today’s strike.
Yesterday’s strike in Sour… they didn’t find any martyrs. They put out the fire and searched everywhere, but thank God, they didn’t find any martyrs. That was last night’s strike.
End of recording.
A first responder stands atop the rubble in the middle of a search and rescue operation, following the Israeli airstrike on Hay al-Raml, Sour, South Lebanon. April 8, 2026. (Hasan Fneich/The Public Source)
At 6:10 p.m., Fneich sent his second voice note:
The first place they targeted was full of people, it was packed. It’s in an area that hadn’t been warned, the building wasn’t threatened, and people were crammed together. Dr. Mohammad Ezzeddine was martyred, along with his family. A journalist from Sawt al-Farah was martyred in this strike too. I’ll send you her name in a minute. [Ghada Dayekh, 60, was a presenter and reporter at radio station Sawt al-Farah, where she had worked since the 1980s].
A nearby explosion is heard.
I’m OK, I’m OK, I’m OK — nothing happened! We knew about this strike.
To a nearby child: Nothing happened, ya ‘ammo.
They just hit the building they warned about a little bit ago.
To a survivor nearby: That’s the one from the warning, right? OK. Thank God you’re safe. Thank God you’re safe.
Jokingly, to a friend: Careful with the sandwiches, Khodor!
A passerby’s voice: [inaudible name’s] shop was smashed.
End of recording.
A member of the Civil Defense stands over the rubble, looking on, as teammates try to rescue people trapped beneath the collapsed building targeted by an Israeli strike in Hay al-Raml, Sour, South Lebanon. April 8, 2026. (Hasan Fneich/The Public Source)
At 6:40 p.m., still by the sea, Fneich sent his third voice note:
I stayed for about an hour after the initial strike before the Israelis issued another warning for the same location. The Civil Defense told us they had been contacted and asked to get people out because the building was about to be hit again.
A family was martyred in that building. So were a journalist with Sawt al-Farah, Ghada Dayekh, and Dr. Mohammad Ezzeddine, who died with his family.
We stayed the whole time. I was filming the rescue teams as they searched for the martyrs’ remains. The smells were terrifying. The color of the smoke was strange, neither black nor white, more like golden or brown.
Everyone was in shock. Then we started hearing of strikes everywhere: Beirut, Aramoun, Nabatieh, Saida — everywhere. People were asking, “What is happening?” Of course, no one felt like there was a ceasefire.
Everyone is suspicious after all these Israeli strikes.
End of recording.
Fneich said that, as of 6:40 p.m., when we spoke to him, the names of the martyrs from this strike — except for martyred journalist Ghada Dayekh, in the al-Raml strike in Sour, have not yet been announced. A Civil Defense volunteer told him that many people were missing.
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