Lebanon airstrike: Albanese government raises deaths of two Australians with Israel

The federal government has raised the deaths of two Australians with Israel, after the brothers and one of their wives were killed in airstrike in a home in southern Lebanon.

The acting foreign minister, Mark Dreyfus, confirmed two Australians died in the Israeli airstrike in al-Dawra neighbourhood in the town of Bint Jbeil, and said the Albanese government had been in “communication” with Israel after the deaths.

Dreyfus would not go into details about what was said or what form the communication took.

The dead have been identified by Middle Eastern media as Ibrahim Bazzi, his wife, Shorouq Hammoud, a Lebanese

citizen, and his brother Ali Bazzi, who Hezbollah claimed was a fighter with the Shia Muslim group.

Funerals for the trio were held overnight in Lebanon.

The Associated Press news agency filed pictures from the town of Bint Jbeil showing the funeral, with coffins draped in Hezbollah flags.

Dreyfus said the government was “aware of the announcement made by Hezbollah claiming links to one of the Australians killed”, but was still “seeking to establish the facts”.

“We are continuing to make inquiries but, I repeat, Hezbollah is a listed terrorist organisation under Australian law,” he said.

“It is an offence for any Australian to cooperate with [or] to support, let alone to fight with, a listed terrorist organisation like Hezbollah.”

Dreyfus urged any Australians in Lebanon “to leave while commercial options remain available”.

“In the context of the current conflict, Australia has consistently called for civilian lives to be protected and we have consistently raised our concerns about the risk of this conflict spreading,” he said.

“It is why we have been working with countries who have influence in the region to prevent further escalation and it is why we have been advising Australians not to travel to Lebanon.”

Regional media have reported further detail about the deaths.

“They were in their homes,” a medic who works with the civil defence in southern Lebanon told the National, an English-language United Arab Emirates-based news outlet.

He said there were no signs of fighting nearby before the strike and that Hammoud had been recovered first from the debris.

“When they found her she was alive but she died shortly after,” he told the National. This could not be independently confirmed.

Lebanon’s National News Agency also reported the deaths, saying the home belonged to the Bazzi family.

Hezbollah, which has widespread support in the area, later announced that Ali Bazzi had been one of the group’s fighters. In a post mourning his death on its website it said he “rose as a martyr on the road to Jerusalem”.

As an ally of the Palestinian Islamist faction Hamas, Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began on 7 October.

Asked about the airstrike, the Israeli military said one of its jets had hit a Hezbollah military site overnight in Lebanon, Reuters said.

Hammoud had been granted an Australian visa. She and her husband, who have been married for three years, planned to travel soon to Sydney, Nine News reported.

Ibrahim Bazzi is believed to have moved to Australia in 2020-21.

Australia’s Smartraveller website maintains a “do not travel” warning for Lebanon, citing the possibility of increased armed conflict, as well as daily military action in the country’s south, including airstrikes.