Lebanese woman was stunned to find a video of an Israeli soldier playing the piano in the rubble of her home

A video circulating on social media captured a disturbing coincidence for a young Lebanese woman who came across images on Instagram of IDF soldiers playing her old piano and walking around the bombed wreckage of her family home.

When Julia Ali, living in London, UK, came across the clip a few days ago, she recognized the unique interior of her family home in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon and the piano she had fond memories of playing there.

The piano room, with its almost floor-to-ceiling curved window that once filled the space with light, had its windows and doors blown out and now looked dull and gray, with much of the interior reduced to rubble.

Shocked and heartbroken, Ali dug up a year-old video of herself in that same room at that same piano playing a composition from The pianist and posted it along with the images of the soldiers in a grim before and after post on her own Instagram account. The post has been viewed well over a million times.

“It is a pain too deep for words to see the place I called home turned to rubble,” Ali wrote in the post.

“These weren't just walls and a roof; these were years of my family's dreams, sacrifices, and love, built into a sanctuary. Now, to see intruders wandering through it, mocking it, touching the piano where I once put my heart in every Note… it feels like they're trampling pieces of my soul.”

Footage posted by a Palestinian journalist

The video of the soldiers in the house was reposted on the Instagram and X accounts of a Palestinian journalist known as Tamer. Tamer lives outside Gaza and asked CBC to use only his first name or X name, Tamerqdh, for fear it could jeopardize the safety of his family still in Gaza.

He told CBC News he found the video as an Instagram story on an IDF soldier's account last Friday. Tamer shared the original post with CBC, but the account is no longer active.

In the video, one of the soldiers is seen lying on the piano, absently waving his feet and pointing a gun out the blown-out window, while another leans against the piano and also points a gun, and a third soldier plays the piano. Two other soldiers walk through the house, one of them hopping to the music.

Lebanon's state news agency said on Tuesday it estimates that 40,000 homes in the country's border region have been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

Khiam, which is about six kilometers from the border with Israel and home to one of the largest Shiite communities in southern Lebanon, has been the target of airstrikes for several weeks. Last Thursday, Hezbollah said it had launched several rocket and artillery attacks against Israeli forces near Khiam.

The Israeli army and the militant group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the border for more than a year in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, but hostilities have escalated in the past six weeks.

According to Lebanese health authorities, more than 3,000 people have been killed in the past year, the vast majority in the past six weeks, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced as a result of the fighting.

'I have hope that we will rise from this'

It is not clear when Ali and her family were last in the house. CBC News reached out to Ali but did not receive a response in time for publication.

In her Instagram post, she expressed hope that she and others uprooted by the recent violence will eventually be able to return and rebuild their lives.

“I have hope that we will rise from this and not just rebuild a home, but start a new chapter full of resilience, strength and the memories of all that has been lost,” she wrote.

In a statement to CBC News on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not confirm that the video was posted by one of its soldiers, but said it is “acting to address exceptional incidents that deviate from the orders and expected values ​​of IDF soldiers .”

The IDF said it is investigating reports of videos posted on social media and “is dealing with them with command and disciplinary measures.”

“In some of the cases investigated, it was concluded that the expression or behavior of the soldiers in the video was inappropriate and was dealt with accordingly,” the statement said.

The social media posts of Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza and Lebanon have been scrutinized in the past by media outlets, including the New York Times, Al Jazeera and the Times of Israelreporting images and videos of arrogant looting of homes and buildings, mocking of locals and other inappropriate behavior during military operations.

The IDF has condemned such behavior, telling the New York Times, for example, that such reports are against the IDF regulations which prohibit the sharing of content that “tarnishes the image of the IDF and its perception in the eyes of the public” and exhibits behavior that “harms human dignity.”

CBC News analyzed the videos posted by Ali and Tamer and found similarities in the footage that indicate they were filmed at the same location, including:

• The large chandelier hangs from the ceiling.
• The unique, floor-to-ceiling, curved window frame and curtains.
• The location and size of a smaller window to the right of the larger one.
• The molding on one of the support columns in the room.
• The small bench to the right of the piano has been moved, but appears to be the same shape and size.
• The shape, size and position of the piano, although the orientation has changed slightly.
• The design and size of the piano bench.