There are now at least 40 healthcare workers killed and 107 wounded in Lebanon in the latest fighting from the Israel Defense Force attacks that erupted on March 2. This is similar to the IDF’s 2024 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, in which 230 healthcare workers were killed in deliberate targetting, and often, double-tap attacks.
In just 17 days, Israel has attacked 128 medical facilities or ambulances, and witnesses have said that at least five of these attacks have been double-tap strikes, in which Israel would attack a target and then wait a few minutes for first responders to arrive at the scene, before attacking a second time. Medical workers and hospitals are protected by international law. Targetting medical workers is a war crime, and double-tap strikes are a war crime. According to figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry over 1,000 people have been killed and 2,584 have been wounded in Israeli strikes in this recent fighting.
The goal of the attacks is to make south Lebanon “uninhabitable,” according to healthcare workers, and is part of attacks on other civilian infrastructure. Abdullah Nour el-Din, the head of the Islamic Health Association emergency response in southern Lebanon told Britain’s The Guardian: “The Israeli enemy is trying as much as possible to prevent life in our region and push people to flee. Our role is to help people, to stand by them and to provide services so they can remain on their land.” Nour el-Din added: “We have seen what look like double-tap strikes—striking, waiting for paramedics, then striking again. In Seddiqin, they were putting out a blaze and were hit again. In Nabatieh, they were rescuing civilians when they were attacked.” Other health workers have seen a pattern of attacking first responders as they gather to break the Ramadan fast at sundown. As a precaution, health workers now try to keep distance from one another, so if one is killed, the others will survive. Medics often sleep in their clearly identified ambulances, which they park far apart from each other.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health officials have stated that Israel has tried to justify these war crimes by claiming that the ambulances and medical centers were used by Hezbollah combatants, but a number of journalists have reported that they have inspected several of the targets and found no evidence of any use by militants. These Ministry of Health officials have stated that Israel made the same claims in the 2024 war, but still has made no attempt to provide any evidence to justify attacks on medical workers.
Comparing the current war to the 2024 war, Dr. Hassan Wazni, the head of the Nabatieh Hospital, said, “It’s tougher this time. The bombing seems more vicious. We are getting fewer wounded people coming in, and more already dead.”
