Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive

Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Lubnan Baalbaki, the conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched on his phone screen as the Israeli army destroyed his family home in southern Lebanon. The house in Odaisseh housed his late father’s art collection and library and his parents were buried in the garden. Israeli warplanes and ground forces have blasted a trail of destruction through southern Lebanon over the past two months. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group and push it away from the border, but the bombardment has also wiped out entire residential neighborhoods or even villages.