Among the more than 300 people killed in Lebanon by Israeli bombs 10 are Brazilians. Itamaraty, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, confirmed today, July 19, the death of seven.
The latest Brazilian victim, whose name wasn’t revealed, is a 60-year-old man according to the Brazilian authorities and he was killed in the Bekaa Valley region.
Yesterday, July 18, the Lebanese-born businessman naturalized Brazilian, Rodrigo Aiman Daher, 34, was killed in Sur, a town 62 miles from Beirut. Daher was eating in a café next to a building hit by an Israeli missile.
Three other Brazilians who were with him were also killed, but the authorities don’t know their names because they weren’t carrying any identification document.
A seven-year old boy from Fox do Iguaçu, in the state Paraná had been killed previously. And last week, while vacationing in Lebanon, teacher Akil Mehri, 34, his wife and two children, also from Foz do Iguaçu, died due to the Israeli attacks .
Michel Gepp, the Brazilian consul in Beirut, says that there isn’t much that he can to help Brazilians willing to leave Lebanon since Brazil has little resources.
The only plane helping in the evacuation is the Sucatão (the Big Wreck), the Brazilian aging plane that used to be Brazil’s Air Force One. The old Boeing 707 can’t carry more than 100 passengers.
We need a ship or more planes for the rescue effort, says Gepp, who cited the examples of France and the United States, who are using boats and ships to take their citizens to Cyprus.
Many Brazilian are also stranded in the Valley without a way to reach Beirut since many roads and bridges have been damaged or destroyed by Israel’s bombs.