A family in southern Lebanon has been left devastated after nine relatives were killed in a single Israeli air strike on the village of Irkay.

At the burial on Friday, grief overwhelmed relatives as the bodies arrived at the cemetery. Among those killed were four young cousins — Zaynab, 13, Zahraa, 12, Malika, 9, and Yasmina, 6 — who had been playing together in their grandparents’ yard the day before the strike.

They were laid to rest alongside other members of the Taqi family, including their grandparents, uncles and a cousin.

As mourners gathered, distraught relatives begged one woman not to look too closely, urging her instead to hold on to happier memories of the children. Their mother, Suzanne Taqi, climbed down into the graves to hold them one final time.

The strike, which relatives said came without warning, killed nine members of the same family.

On Thursday, the Israeli military had ordered people across a broad area of southern Lebanon to leave, with the evacuation zone stretching to just south of Irkay.

The Israel Defense Forces has not given details of the intended target.

Speaking to CNN, the girls’ father, Mohammed Rida Taqi, stood injured, with one side of his face covered in bandages and burn marks from the blast. He said everyone in the village knew how much his daughters meant to him.

He recalled that Yasmina had once asked for a necklace bearing the words “daddy’s soul” instead of her own name.

After burying his children, he said his thoughts turned to returning to the rubble to try to find it.