Lebanon: MSF condemns killing of paramedics by Israeli forces
A drone strike hit paramedics responding to a previous attack in Nabatiyeh.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemn Israeli forces’ attacks against paramedics in Lebanon, including the recent killing of two Lebanese civil defence workers in Nabatiyeh, and reiterates our critical call for the protection of medical and rescue personnel.
On May 12, 2026, a drone strike hit three paramedics as they were attempting to assist an injured person who survived a previous attack. Two of them were killed on the spot. Another one, wounded, was later treated in the emergency room of Najdeh Al-Shaabiyeh hospital, where MSF teams are working. Paramedics from the ambulance that departed from Najdeh Al-Shaabiyeh hospital and who had witnessed the strike on their colleagues later had to return to the site to collect human remains from the scene.
“We are outraged over the killing of paramedics who were simply doing their job, taking huge risks to save lives,” says Jeremy Ristord, MSF country director in Lebanon. “Attacks on healthcare are unacceptable and must not be normalized.”
While scaling up support at Najdeh Al-Shaabiyeh hospital to respond to mass casualty incidents in recent months, MSF teams have also worked side by side with paramedics and frontline responders across Nabatiyeh governorate, including the Lebanese civil defence. They have shared days and nights of emergency response, transporting patients to health facilities and supporting colleagues who continue working despite profound loss and fear.
The May 12 incident is part of an alarming pattern. In recent weeks, MSF teams in Lebanon have been witnessing the consequences of airstrikes, drone strikes and artillery fire damaging hospitals, ambulances and medical equipment, while killing and injuring civilians, health workers and first responders. Lebanese health authorities, media and other humanitarian organizations have also reported this kind of violence, including repeated attacks as paramedics rescue people.
In Nabatiyeh and across southern Lebanon, rescue and medical teams are increasingly forced to delay or limit lifesaving interventions because of the fear of being targeted. Ambulance crews supported by MSF report spending only minutes at blast sites due to the risk of repeated strikes, avoiding the use of excavation equipment and delaying evacuations, leaving some people trapped under rubble for hours or days. MSF has treated patients whose conditions were critically worsened by these delays, including severe trauma cases who later died from their injuries.
In total, since MSF started supporting Najdeh Al-Shaabiyeh hospital at the beginning of March, 725 injured patients have been treated and 232 arrived dead or died in hospital.
MSF calls for an immediate end to the continuous attacks on medical and rescue personnel, facilities and offices, as well as on the violence that places civilians and those trying to save their lives at risk.
According to the World Health Organization, between March 2 and May 12, 161 attacks against healthcare were recorded, resulting in 110 people dead and 252 injured. This included 15 attacks that caused 12 deaths and 21 injuries after the start of the ceasefire on April 17. The ceasefire has not led to a cessation of hostilities and has not allowed displaced communities to return home or people stranded in heavily targeted areas to seek safety.
Healthcare workers, first responders, ambulances and medical facilities are protected under international humanitarian law. Their killing not only devastates families and colleagues, but further weakens already strained emergency response and healthcare systems.
MSF calls for an immediate end to the continuous attacks on medical and rescue personnel, facilities and offices, as well as on the violence that places civilians and those trying to save their lives at risk.
MSF is supporting several paramedical and emergency services in the governorates of Nabatiyeh and the south, including the Lebanese civil defence team targeted in the May 12 incident, through the provision of ambulance equipment, first aid medication and supplies, fuel and protective gears.
Our teams are also supporting seven hospitals with donations of fuel, supplies and medications. In four of these hospitals, we have teams working with hospital staff in responding to ER needs. In the two governorates, we are running mobile clinics to provide medical services to people.
