Australia says checking claim national killed in Israeli strike in Lebanon was Hezbollah member

Australia on Thursday confirmed two of its citizens were killed in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon late Tuesday, and said it was looking into Hezbollah’s claims that one of the Australian citizens killed had links to the Lebanese terror group.

“We will continue to make inquiries about this particular person, with whom Hezbollah has claimed links,” Acting Foreign Minister Mark Dreyfus said during a media briefing.

“Hezbollah has claimed this Australian as one of its fighters. Our inquiries are continuing.”

Hezbollah is a “listed terrorist organization” in Australia and it is an offense for any Australian to provide it with financial support or fight in its ranks, Dreyfus said.

A Lebanese-Australian man, his wife, and his brother, who was a member of Hezbollah, were killed in the attack, attributed to Israel, on a home in the southern city of Bint Jbeil, Lebanese security and local sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, the bodies of Ibrahim Bazzi, his wife Shorouk Hammoud, and Ibrahim’s brother, Ali Bazzi, were pulled from the rubble of their destroyed home.

Ibrahim Bazzi was identified by one of his relatives as a Lebanese-Australian dual citizen. Although family members in the village alleged that Ali Bazzi was a civilian, Hezbollah put out a statement announcing his death as a “martyr on the road to Jerusalem,” as it typically does when one of its fighters is killed.

Ibrahim Bazzi was said to have lived in Sydney and was only in Lebanon to visit his wife, who just recently received a travel visa for Australia and so was not yet living with her husband.

At the funeral procession in Bint Jbeil on Wednesday, an AFP photographer saw three coffins draped in Hezbollah flags.

Mourners carry the coffins of a Hezbollah fighter and two civilians killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit their house Tuesday night, in Bint Jbeil, south Lebanon, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023. (AP/Mohammed Zaatari)

Dreyfus said the Australian government had reached out to Israel about the attacks but declined to disclose what was discussed.

He urged Australians in Lebanon to leave the country while commercial flight options remained available.

Bint Jbeil is a Hezbollah stronghold and large parts of it were destroyed during the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group.

Asked about the incident, the Israeli military said one of its jets had struck a Hezbollah military site overnight Tuesday-Wednesday in Lebanon.

Emmanuel Fabian and AFP contributed to this report.

Most Popular