Title: 'My intestines were outside my body': Israel's deliberate targeting of Lebanese healthcare workers

Hussein Jaber always responds to airstrikes in the southern city of Nabatieh in the same way. The 30-year-old rescuer, wearing only a thin bulletproof vest, jumps into a battle-scarred ambulance and speeds towards the danger, against the tide of everyone fleeing.

For more than 14 months, this has become his daily routine. Day after day, he rushes into bombed-out buildings, trying to save survivors and recover the bodies of the dead. The work is extremely dangerous, and he and his team face constant threats, including unexploded ordnance and floors that could collapse at any moment after repeated Israeli airstrikes.

However, one of the most serious threats they face has claimed the lives of more than 200 Lebanese medical personnel. A new documentary called "Under Fire: Israel's War on Medical Personnel," filmed before Israel and Hezbollah reached a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, features multiple Lebanese medical personnel, rescuers, government officials, and independent experts telling Middle East Eye that they believe the high number of Lebanese medical personnel deaths is due to deliberate, targeted attacks by the Israeli military.

According to statistics from the United Nations and the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 222 aid and medical personnel were killed in Israel's war on Lebanon, while the total death toll of the war exceeded 4,000. Former rescuer Mohammed Amasha said: "There is no justification for bombing civil defense units or ambulances. We are in an open area and clearly visible."

Under international law, it is illegal to attack any first responders or medical personnel not involved in armed conflict, even if they are funded or operated by combatant groups such as Hezbollah. Jaber recalled to Middle East Eye an incident in which several of his colleagues were injured, one fatally, during relentless Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Nabatieh, because Israeli forces used so-called "double tap" strikes on the area. A double tap strike refers to hitting a target, waiting a few minutes for the first responders to arrive, and then hitting the same location again.

Jaber said: "It was October 16th, and Nabatieh was subjected to a series of intense airstrikes. The deceased (Najih Fahas) was checking the water supply (of a fire truck near our civil defense office). Suddenly, we heard a loud explosion, and thick black smoke filled the air, making it impossible for us to breathe. We heard his voice (Najih's voice) from a distance and immediately rushed to him. He was bleeding profusely. We started heading to the hospital, but on the way, we were hit by another attack, right next to us. The ambulance, it was a surreal sight, was thrown into the air and then fell down, hit by shrapnel and debris."

Nabatieh was one of the areas in southern Lebanon most heavily attacked by Israel before the ceasefire took effect on November 26, and was the target of frequent Israeli bombing. Many apartment buildings, shops, and schools in the city were destroyed, and more than three months later, several neighborhoods in the city remain cut off from basic services such as water and electricity.

Mohammed Amasha was seriously injured in an Israeli airstrike and was forced to retire and relocate to the capital, Beirut. He could not hold back his tears as he recalled the day four of his colleagues were killed. He said: "I remember my intestines were exposed. There is no justification for bombing civil defense units or ambulances. We are in an open area and clearly visible, the fire trucks and everything are in sight. I don't know why this happened."

Israel has never denied attacking emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire trucks, but has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of transporting and hiding fighters and weapons inside these vehicles, a claim that Hezbollah vehemently denies. In October, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military's Arabic media spokesman, posted an animated video on X showing a Hezbollah fighter carrying weapons inside an ambulance filled with weapons, and issued a message urging civilians not to use certain emergency services. He also warned medical teams not to cooperate with Hezbollah and declared that "necessary measures will be taken against any vehicle transporting gunmen, regardless of its type."

Lebanese Minister of Public Health, Firas Abiad, refuted Israel's claim that it never attacks civilians or civilian infrastructure, saying: "When Israel boasts about its intelligence capabilities, saying it truly understands what is happening, not only in the streets, but even in apartments, it is difficult not to consider this a targeted attack." A growing number of international legal experts and jurists claim that Israel has committed war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza by repeatedly attacking medical personnel.

Gassan Abu-Sitta, a plastic surgeon who worked in Gaza for the past year and is now in Beirut, said that the attacks on medical personnel are reminiscent of Israel's tactics in Gaza. He said: "It is clear that destroying the healthcare system is now a core principle of Israeli military doctrine. Israel believes that only by destroying the healthcare system can an area be ethnically cleansed, as the healthcare system is a key component of life."

On Wednesday, the Israeli human rights organization "Physicians for Human Rights Israel" (PHRI) accused Israel of systematically targeting Palestinian medical personnel in Gaza, arbitrarily detaining them without charge, and subjecting them to torture and abuse. Medical personnel told PHRI that they were subjected to sexual abuse, beatings, dog attacks, starvation, sensory overload, and were doused with boiling water.

Israel is currently on trial in the UN's highest court on charges of genocide, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Israeli military has not publicly investigated any attacks on first responders or medical personnel in Lebanon or Gaza. Middle East Eye contacted the Israeli military and foreign ministry for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.