(18 Apr 2026)

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nabatiyeh, Lebanon - 17 April 2026

1. Various of medics looking inside ambulance hit by Israeli strike

2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Jaber, Nabatiyeh Emergency Services paramedic:

"We got a call that our colleagues, medics, were hit by a strike, and before them other medics had also been hit by a strike. So we went to help, these aren't just civilians, they're our colleagues, so it was a little emotional for us. We went there and were rescuing the wounded, the Israeli enemy could see that we are medics and they had already targeted two ambulances, and still they continued to target civilians and medics and struck us again."

3. Back of damaged ambulance

4. Damaged ambulance being driven away

STORYLINE:

It was late morning when two ambulances slowed to a stop outside of the village of Mayfadoun in southern Lebanon.

Having heard minutes earlier on Wednesday that Israel had attacked two other ambulances, hitting one and then the other after it showed up to help the first, they didn't hesitate before rushing to the scene.

They knew the danger, and they found a hellscape.

The first two ambulances were destroyed, their tires blown and windows shattered. Six of their eight crew members were covered in blood and lying in the road or the back of one vehicle.

A paramedic in one of the driver’s seats, blood pulsing from his abdomen, was cradling a colleague in his lap, pleading with him to stay conscious.

“We went to help. These aren't just civilians, they're our colleagues, so it was a little emotional for us,” Mohammed Jaber, 43, told The Associated Press on Friday from his emergency team's headquarters in Nabatiyeh, where team members dozed on foam mattresses.

A 10-day truce in the Israel-Hezbollah war delivered the exhausted team a rare respite from the drum line of explosions.

Jaber said he and the others hurried to load the most critically injured into their working ambulances.

As team leader Mahdi Abu Zaid ran to close the doors, they, too, were attacked.

The three strikes, which killed four paramedics and wounded six others, is the latest example of Israel's apparent willingness to target Lebanon's health sector.

Such attacks became a contentious issue during the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, as Israel accused Hezbollah, as it did Hamas in Gaza, of using Lebanese hospitals as cover for militant activities — a claim denied by Hezbollah and the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The attacks haven't slowed, as more health workers have been killed in Lebanon in the last six weeks of hostilities than in the more than a year of fighting that preceded the November 2024 ceasefire.

In response to questions about the Mayfadoun strikes, the Israeli army did not repeat its previous accusations about Hezbollah’s use of health facilities.

Instead, it said it was aware of reports about the ambulance attacks and “the incident is under review.”

The attack on the third team of ambulances to make a rescue attempt Wednesday happened as they were still assessing the first two crews’ injuries, less than six minutes after their arrival.

An Israeli drone smashed the vehicles' windows and struck 30-year-old Abu Zaid, throwing him to the ground, his colleagues told the AP.

Abu Zaid, who had a 4-year-old son and sold spices and nuts when he wasn’t volunteering as a paramedic, was later proclaimed dead on arrival at al-Najda Hospital.

Their accounts of what happened match footage captured by a GoPro camera that was strapped on one of the paramedics.

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