A medical bag displaying the the Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps logo is pictured under the rubble of the association's medical center in Hebbarieh, targeted by the Israeli army on March 27, 2024. (Credit: L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Half an hour past midnight on Wednesday, March 27, an Israeli warplane dropped a missile on a medical center in Hebbarieh, in Hasbaya district, in southern Lebanon, killing seven first-aid volunteers inside.
The town’s mokhtar told L’Orient Today that the explosion, which was the first time Hebbarieh was targeted by an Israeli airstrike, was so big that it also destroyed 10 surrounding houses and burnt out numerous parked cars, including an ambulance.
A man stands next to a damaged ambulance and a car at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike in Hebbarieh near the Israeli border on March 27, 2024. (Credit: Rabih Daher/AFP)
According to the mokhtar, there had been 10 people inside the center, but three left the building “a few minutes before the attack.”
“Seven stayed and were killed,” he said. The Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps (IERC) released the names of the seven volunteer first-aid and rescue workers the next morning. Abdallah Atoui, Mohammad Atoui, Bara' Abou Kais, Abderrahmane Shaar, Ahmad Shaar and Mohammad Hammoud, were all pulled from under the rubble of the building sometime before sunrise, a resident of Hebbarieh told AP. The oldest of the seven victims, the mokhtar said, was 25 years old.
The funeral procession for the seven rescue workers killed in Hebbarieh, in Hasbaya district, in southern Lebanon, March 27, 2024. (Credit: L'Orient Today)
The IERC runs the medical center that was struck, among others, and is supervised by a country-wide NGO, Lebanese Soccor Association (LSA). The latter released a statement Wednesday denouncing the attack on the IERC medical center as "a crime in blatant violation of the neutrality [in war] of humanitarian organizations and workers."
LSA called for a "broad campaign of solidarity from other humanitarian organizations ... to ensure the protection of all emergency crews."
The Israeli army was quick to claim the attack — its Arabic-speaking spokesperson Avichay Adraee released a statement on X on Wednesday morning announcing the Israeli army’s claims that it "eliminated a saboteur."
"Last night, warplanes attacked a military building in Hebbarieh in southern Lebanon, where a prominent terrorist belonging to Jamaa Islamiya was eliminated,” Adraee wrote.
The Israeli military accused the targeted individual as having been “involved in previous operations against Israeli territory.” The army also announced the deaths of “other saboteurs who were with him in the building."
The rubble of an Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps (IERC) medical center in Hebbarieh, south Lebanon, after an Israeli strike killed several rescue workers, on March 27, 2024. (Credit: L'Orient Today)
Although not confirmed publicly, several sources told L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the South that the IERC is affiliated with al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a Sunni political party that was formed as a Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s. The exact nature of the relationship is unclear.
Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, a relatively small party, resurrected its armed wing, “the Dawn Forces,” following the Oct. 7 al-Aqsa Flood operation by Hamas on southern Israel, to take part in the fighting alongside the Hezbollah, which opened its own front with Israel in support of Hamas on Oct. 8.
There are several entities operating in the South and many of them run their own health centers, operate their own civil defense, and have teams of first-aid workers. Most active among these health organizations are Hezbollah's "Islamic Health Commitee" and the Amal Movement's "al-Rissala Scouts," whose medical teams have carried out the majority of rescue missions since the war broke out in southern Lebanon in October.
In response to the Israeli airstrike on the medical center, Hezbollah announced that it had fired dozens of rockets at 8 a.m. in retaliation, targeting the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and the command of the Israeli 769th Brigade in the Kiryat Shmona barracks.
Haaretz first reported the Israeli army saying that at least 30 rockets were fired at Kiryat Shmona, and then shortly after reported that a 25-year-old was killed in the rocket barrage that targeted the city.
Reporting by Muntasser Abdallah, L'Orient Today's correspondent in southern Lebanon.