Beirut, Lebanon – On Monday, Israel killed 10 firefighters in a strike on the southern Lebanese city of Baraachit, close to Bint Jbeil, in what rescue staff have described as a deliberate assault.
The killings pushed the variety of rescue staff Israel has killed in Lebanon to greater than 100 up to now 12 months – most of them up to now two weeks.
“It’s a tragedy that shocked me,” mentioned a Lebanese Civil Protection member from close by Tebnine, who requested Al Jazeera to withhold his title for worry of reprisals.
“I knew them, they were all my friends,” he mentioned, including that whereas they weren’t from the identical organisation, there was coordination between them.
Rescue centres straight focused
Straight concentrating on rescue staff or medical workers is towards worldwide humanitarian legislation and will quantity to a battle crime below the Geneva Conventions which Israel has ratified together with 195 different nations.
Since final October, no less than 107 rescue staff have been killed by Israeli assaults, based on the Ministry of Public Well being, with many in Lebanon expressing anger over Israel’s lack of accountability.
Israel’s Arabic language spokesperson has repeatedly claimed that Israel doesn’t goal civilians or rescue staff, and that the strikes have targeted solely on “Hezbollah terrorist targets”.
Nevertheless, Mahmoud Karaki, a spokesman for the Islamic Well being Committee rescue unit, informed Al Jazeera that 18 of the committee’s centres have been “directly targeted” by Israel up to now 12 months.
“In all the centres that were targeted, there were no military targets next to them, or in them. The Israeli enemy always looks to find an excuse but it’s not true,” Karaki mentioned.
The civil defence employee from Tebnine, a 30-minute drive from the southern border, mentioned the rise in violence during the last couple of weeks had shaken him to his core.
“Listen to me, they targeted the Red Cross, civil defence and the fire brigade,” he informed Al Jazeera, talking at a frantic tempo.
“They targeted Al-Risala and the Islamic Health Committee, meaning they can target anything without accountability … they are not afraid [of repercussions].”
Al-Risala and Islamic Well being Committee are healthcare companies affiliated with Lebanese political events Haraket Amal and Hezbollah, respectively.
“I’ve been working for a year,” he mentioned. “But now … I swear to God, it’s suicide. If there’s a fire … you’re going out there to kill yourself, not put it out, because it’s possible that a plane will strike you.”
Worry to method
Lebanese battle researcher Ahmad Baydoun informed Al Jazeera that usually after a strike, Israel will use its firepower to ensure assist stays distant.
“[Israel] won’t let people go to specific sites,” Baydoun mentioned. “They want to make sure everyone there is dead.”
Final Friday, a video went viral of an excavator operator in Beirut’s southern suburbs being hit by an Israeli air strike.
Within the 22-second video, a person is seen sitting contained in the excavator cabin, pointing his digital camera downward in the direction of the bucket.
A buzzing noise is adopted by an explosion and the digital camera shakes and jerks upward, mud rising throughout.
After a one-second pause, a person begins screaming, whereas one other asks frantically: “What happened?”
In one other video of the identical incident from a distinct angle, a person screams on the bottom as one other says: “A rocket hit us!”
Baydoun mentioned he had geolocated each movies to the placement of an assault on assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s potential successor, the Hezbollah Government Council head, Hachem Safieddine.
Safieddine has been lacking since a violent Israeli air strike rocked Beirut on Thursday. Israel’s Protection Minister Yoav Gallant mentioned Safieddine was possible killed in that assault.
Hezbollah informed Reuters that Israel was blocking search and rescue efforts to seek out Safieddine – and that would come with civilians and rescue staff.
“We have no information other than that this is part of the attacks on civilians,” Ali Tfayli, a Hezbollah spokesperson informed Al Jazeera.
“The Israelis made a decision to leave the suburb empty so they can do whatever they want.”
The newest bombardments are main many rescue staff to now reassess their priorities.
“Citizens have the right to ask the Lebanese state for help,” Walid Hashash, 58, director-general of the civil defence in Beirut, informed Al Jazeera.
“But at some point, we have to protect our lives.”
‘It’s equally harmful in all places’
On September 23, Israel expanded its battle towards Hezbollah by bombarding southern Beirut and different Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon with lethal air strikes.
Hezbollah and Israel have been buying and selling cross-border assaults since October 8, 2023, with Israel killing almost 2,100 folks in Lebanon since. Nevertheless, 1,250 of these deaths occurred since September 23, greater than in your complete monthlong battle of 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel.
A lot of the deaths earlier than then have been Hezbollah members, however in current weeks, the demise toll has spiked as civilians – together with rescue staff and medics – more and more come below Israeli hearth.
Throughout the first 11 months of the battle, Israel’s assaults on Lebanon have been confined principally to southern Lebanon and components of the Bekaa Valley within the east and northeast.
However on September 23, 2024, Israel intensified assaults on each areas, killing greater than 550 folks in a single day. On September 27, Israel assassinated Nasrallah in a devastating assault that took down no less than six buildings in Haret Hreik, a neighbourhood in Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs and some hours later started ordering the evacuation of sure components of the suburbs.
Because the escalation on September 23, a couple of quarter of Lebanon’s inhabitants – or 1.2 million folks – have been displaced and the every day information in Lebanon is crammed with pictures of outlets and houses turned to mud and rubble.
Tfayli additionally mentioned Israel has began concentrating on displaced civilians in new areas, together with in Kayfoun and Qamatiyeh, in Lebanon’s Aley district, half an hour from Beirut by automobile.
Till September 23, “it was a bit more dangerous in south Lebanon”, Karaki informed Al Jazeera. “But today, there’s no difference. It’s equally dangerous everywhere.”
In the meantime, in southern Lebanon, the village of Meiss el-Jabal was one of many worst affected by air assaults over the previous 12 months. On October 6, it confronted greater than 40 raids by the Israeli Air Pressure in simply 4 hours. Just a few folks remained within the village, most of them aged or sick and the civil defence as soon as offered support and therapy for them. However there was no communication for per week.
“Nobody knows anything about their situation,” the civil defence member from Tebnine mentioned.
“Maybe they died in the raids.”
