Israeli Missle Kills Members of Lebanese Family Trying to Flee

Ali Shaito implored his mother, Muntaha, to stay conscious as she lay near death from shrapnel wounds. (Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images)

Two brothers from the Shaito family waited Sunday at a hospital in Tyre, Lebanon. Three of their relatives died while fleeing north when their van was struck by an Israeli missile. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times)
This NYT headline implies that it was the family's fault for leaving too late: "To Flee or to Stay? Family Chooses Too Late and Pays Dearly"

Muntaha Shaito's eyes rolled back as the paramedics screamed at her to stay awake and implored her son Ali to keep her engaged, as she teetered near death from shrapnel wounds inflicted by an Israeli rocket.

"Pray to God!," one paramedic shouted at her as she writhed in Ali's arms.

"Don’t go to sleep Mama, look at me!," Ali shouted, tears streaking his bloodied face. "Don’t die, please don’t die!"

It was the scene that members of the extended Shaito family said they had feared most, the real reason they had held out for days in their village of Tireh in southern Lebanon, terrified of the Israeli bombardment, but more terrified of what might happen if they risked leaving. On Sunday they gave up their stand, and all 18 members crammed into the family's white Mazda minivan. They planned to head north toward the relative safety of Beirut.

Within minutes they became casualties of Israel's 12-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon, which the Israelis say they will continue indefinitely to destroy the military abilities of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group. By the Lebanese official count, Israel's attacks have killed more than 380 Lebanese.

An Israeli rocket, which Lebanese officials said was likely fired from a helicopter, slammed into the center of the Shaitos' van as it sped round a bend a few miles west of their village, and the van crashed into a hillside. Three occupants were killed: an uncle, Mohammad; the grandmother, Nazira; and a Syrian man who had guarded their home. The missile also critically wounded Mrs. Shaito and her sister. Eleven others suffered less severe wounds.

"They said leave, and that's what we did," said Musbah Shaito, another uncle, as his niece, Heba, 16, cried hysterically behind him for her dead father, whose head was nearly blown off. This reporter watched as paramedics struggled to remove the dead from the van, but soon gave up, as an Israeli drone hovered overhead.

"This is what we got for listening to them," Mr. Shaito said, speaking of the Israelis.