Dozens of paramedics in bright red uniforms gathered for the funeral of Youssef Assaf, a Lebanese Red Cross volunteer killed by an Israeli airstrike on March 9 while responding to a strike in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon. His seaside procession in Tyre drew hundreds of first responders, his mother’s cries audible as colleagues carried his coffin.
Lebanese authorities say at least 54 health workers are among more than 1,400 people killed during the current Israeli campaign. Human rights groups and Lebanese officials say that first responders and medical personnel have been targeted; Israel rejects any deliberate strikes on health workers.
The Lebanese Red Cross says it follows a protocol of sending ambulance coordinates to U.N. peacekeepers, who then notify Israeli forces. That procedure was followed on March 9, the group says, yet Assaf was killed after he stepped out of his ambulance to help the wounded and a second strike struck the scene. Alexy Nehme, director of emergency medical services at the Lebanese Red Cross, said he filed a complaint and asked why the teams were hit but received no reply.
The Israeli military told reporters it struck what it described as a “Hezbollah military-use building” that day and said some people arrived at the scene between the firing of munitions and their impact. The military maintains Red Cross personnel were not intentionally targeted and said it was unaware of a Red Cross presence and did not intend to strike them.
Lebanese officials, former health ministers and rights organizations say a pattern has emerged. Former health minister Dr. Firass Abiad said the killing of 10 first responders within roughly 24 hours makes it hard to treat the incidents as accidental. Lebanon’s health minister, Rakan Nassereddine, and the World Health Organization reported 10 health workers killed over the weekend of March 28–29; Nassereddine said he is preparing a legal file to present to the U.N. Security Council.
Human Rights Watch cautioned it is early to draw definitive conclusions about the current war but noted that Israel has previously struck health workers in Gaza and Lebanon. HRW documented three 2024 attacks — on paramedics at a civil defense center in Beirut, and on an ambulance and a hospital in southern Lebanon — that killed 14 paramedics and characterized those incidents as apparent war crimes, saying it found no evidence that the medical teams or facilities were being used for military purposes. Amnesty International made similar accusations, saying Israel has used what it called a “same deadly playbook” of unlawful attacks on healthcare without accountability. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged that attacks on health facilities stop immediately.
Israel says it complies with the laws of war but argues that legal protections for health workers can be revoked if there is “misuse,” accusing Hezbollah of exploiting medical teams and facilities and of transporting weapons in ambulances as part of a broader pattern of using civilian infrastructure for military purposes. Many of the first responders killed have belonged to units run by Islamist political groups, including Hezbollah’s own ambulance service, which, unlike the Red Cross, does not notify Israeli forces of its movements.
Mohammed Farhat, operations director for the Islamic Health Authority, which includes Hezbollah’s ambulance service, described working under the threat of so-called “double-tap” strikes, in which an initial strike is followed by a second hit on rescuers who arrive later. Israel denies a policy of targeting responders but says it sometimes conducts follow-up strikes when the initial objective was not achieved. Farhat rejected accusations that his teams transport weapons and said his organization has lost many colleagues who deserved legal protection as health workers regardless of political affiliation.
First-responder groups say they have altered tactics to reduce risk: crews sometimes wait and send small advance teams to assess scenes rather than dispatch large groups immediately. Still, instinct and compassion often lead rescuers to rush in to aid the wounded, especially children.
At the Lebanese Red Cross control room in southern Beirut, dispatchers handle roughly 1,500 calls a day. Lead dispatcher George Ghafary described staying on the phone with callers who suffered severe trauma until ambulances reached them. He said such calls haunt him and that the burden of sending colleagues into dangerous areas weighs heavily: he tracks teams by GPS and keeps communication open by phone and walkie-talkie, hoping the line does not go silent.