The night before 31-year-old Red Cross paramedic Hassan Badawi was killed, he called his pregnant wife to tell her that Israeli bombing in Lebanon was “everywhere”, but that he could not leave the wounded behind.
In comments made to Al Jazeera, his mother, Ahlam Badawi, and his father, Ali, remembered their son as a selfless “hero” who “in every war, used to be the first to go”.
“God used to be merciful on me and used to bring him to me safe,” Ahlam said in tears at the funeral of her son on Monday. “This time God took him from me.”
While Israeli and Lebanese officials met for formal talks for the first time in decades in Washington on Tuesday, Hassan became one of 89 emergency workers who have been killed in strikes on southern Lebanon since 2 March and the second Lebanese Red Cross responder to be killed this month.
The father of two is reported to have been carrying a patient out of an ambulance on a stretcher according to local reports when he was injured in a drone strike and later succumbed to his wounds. His colleague survived the attack.
The Israeli military told The Independent “the incident is under review”, adding that it had targeted “a Hezbollah terrorist who operated adjacent to IDF soldiers in the Bint Jbeil area in southern Lebanon. Reports were received regarding a Red Cross team injured in the strike”.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation said there had been more than 100 attacks on healthcare during Israeli strikes in Lebanon.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told The Independent that “the scale and scope of military operations in southern Lebanon” has reached “devastating” proportions and that health and medical care in the region is at risk.
“Without continued and sustained support, medical facilities in southern Lebanon could face the risk of closing down,” said Hashem Osseiran, ICRC spokesperson for the Middle East. The WHO had warned on 9 April that facilities could be days away from running out of supplies.
Relentless strikes have forced nurses and medics to effectively “move in” to hospitals with their families in order to continue working and because they are considered “sanctuaries” safe from bombing.
Strikes on roads have also led to difficulty moving around the region, restricting access to medicine and essential aid support.
But the hospitals are not entirely safe. On Monday, a government hospital in Tebnine, southern Lebanon, was damaged in a nearby Israeli attack.
“The situation in southern Lebanon is, to put it simply, a humanitarian catastrophe. There is an intensification of hostilities, severe constraints on access and movement due to security conditions. Southern Lebanon is mostly covered by evacuation notices but many civilians still live there.”
The Lebanese Red Cross has deployed 125 ambulances to support more tha 11,000 patients and provided health support to over 22,000 individuals.
“The loss of those who dedicate their lives to saving others is deeply troubling, given the impact it has on civilians who depend on their assistance,” said Agnès Durr, head of the ICRC delegation in Lebanon, in a statement.
“Humanitarian and medical personnel must be protected and enabled to access and assist the wounded, and to return.”
The British Medical Association previously called attacks on medical workers “violations of medical neutrality and international humanitarian law”, while Amnesty warned Israel was using the same “deadly playbook” as it did in Lebanon in 2024.
Serbia agrees to produce combat drones with Israel
Lebanon and Israel hold first talks in decades in bid to end devastating war
Thousands gather in Poland for the annual March of the Living on Holocaust Remembrance Day
Fuel protests have Ireland's government facing possible no-confidence vote
Iran-US war latest: Tehran considering ‘pause’ to shipments to facilitate new talks
After all the talk, is Trump’s blockade of Iranian ports actually doing anything?
