Rescue workers persist in their search and rescue operations in the hope of finding survivors at the site of a massive Israeli strike that caused the collapse of a nine-floor residential building in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sept 20, 2024. (Credit: Ghassan Zheim/Lebanese Civil Defense)
The streets were a blur of chaos. Ambulances raced against time to get the wounded to hospitals. Motorcycles cut through the scene with their own urgency, with some of the injured clinging to the drivers with their legs, arms dangling, barely conscious. Blood soaked the fabric of shirts, dripping onto the pavement as the motorcycles zigzagged through the confusion.It all started on Sept. 17 with a phone call to his personal number. “The first call came in — someone's hand had exploded. Just 100 meters away. Our ambulance rushed over,” says Ghassan Zheim, head of the Ghobeiry Civil Defense Station, part of a public emergency service in Lebanon responsible for patient transport, search and rescue operations, and firefighting.“Less than 30 seconds later, I got another call. Then a third.”This was how paramedics and first responders came to...
The streets were a blur of chaos. Ambulances raced against time to get the wounded to hospitals. Motorcycles cut through the scene with their own urgency, with some of the injured clinging to the drivers with their legs, arms dangling, barely conscious. Blood soaked the fabric of shirts, dripping onto the pavement as the motorcycles zigzagged through the confusion.It all started on Sept. 17 with a phone call to his personal number. “The first call came in — someone's hand had exploded. Just 100 meters away. Our ambulance rushed over,” says Ghassan Zheim, head of the Ghobeiry Civil Defense Station, part of a public emergency service in Lebanon responsible for patient transport, search and rescue operations, and firefighting.“Less than 30 seconds later, I got another call. Then a third.”This was how paramedics and first...