More than 200 emergency and medical workers have been killed since last October, Lebanon’s health ministry says. Many believe Israel’s military is targeting them in its war against Hezbollah.
It is Jad Deeb’s job to run toward the screams.
Ever since Israel started carrying out airstrikes in southern Beirut in September as part of its intensified campaign to dismantle Hezbollah, the 31-year-old IT specialist turned paramedic has spent day after day racing toward bombed out buildings to help pull people from the rubble of their homes.
The wreckage from Israeli airstrikes is often so vast that rescues can take days, at which point few are ever found alive.
« We are used to the smell of death », says Deeb. « We are used to dismembered bodies, we are used to decapitated bodies. We’ve seen the unimaginable. »
The work is dangerous. He and his team, all volunteers of the Lebanese Popular Relief Association — an organization of roughly 100 first responders who are mostly self-funded, with some modest help from donors, and no links, he says, to Hezbollah — have come across unexploded ordnance while digging through rubble and have had to abruptly stop rescues when Israel started airstrikes nearby without warning.
But of all the dangers, Deeb believes getting caught directly in Israel’s crosshairs is the greatest.
« Of course we’re being targeted », Deeb says, acutely aware that he may not return from any call for help to which he responds. « On numerous occasions when we were doing our job, [the Israeli military] would send us alerts saying: Either you quit the site or we will bomb again. »
NPR asked the Israeli military if it ever threatens to bomb sites in Lebanon where first responders are actively looking for survivors. It did not respond.Allegations of fighters and weapons inside ambulances
The current war between Israel and Hezbollah can be traced back to Oct. 8, 2023. That’s when Hezbollah renewed its rocket attacks on Israel in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza, a day after the Palestinian militant group led an attack on Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people there. The ensuing low-grade conflict between Israel and Hezbollah turned into a full-fledged war in September, when Israel killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, sent ground troops into Lebanon and expanded its airstrikes.
Throughout this time, more than 200 first responders and medical workers have been killed across Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. Many, like Deeb, believe Israel’s military is targeting them.
In an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, Lebanon’s health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad, pointed to the way many first responders have been killed — « when they were responding to incidents » of airstrikes — as evidence of Israeli targeting. Human Rights Watch has documented cases from recent weeks that it describes as « apparent war crimes » in which Israeli forces « unlawfully struck medical personnel, transports, and facilities » in Lebanon.
