![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/OEMZBSVFSUIW2TWLQ3CFTNB3RM.jpg\")
Smoke rises from Israeli air strikes in front of Beaufort Castle in Nabatieh, Lebanon, on June 4. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak\/The New York Times<\/p>\n
Last week, Nabatieh and its surrounding villages were effectively a no-go zone. The main road leading there from the west was deserted, apart from a few ambulances and journalists\u2019 vehicles marked with \u201cPress\u201d signs, which sped along, swerving to avoid burnt-out cars and motorbikes. <\/p>\n
By Monday, with the announcement of a peace agreement between the US<\/a> and Iran, displaced people began rushing back, hoping this ceasefire would last longer than the ones that came before it.<\/p>\n In Nabatieh, the previous April 16th ceasefire agreed by Israel and Lebanon<\/a> meant little, apart from an initial rush of people coming to check on their homes. <\/p>\n Many remain too frightened to return now, said paramedic Ali Rida Hammoud. While air strikes stopped overnight, he said artillery fire and drone strikes continued, and the Israeli army appeared to be advancing in at least one area nearby. The Israeli military was approached for comment.<\/p>\n The last fortnight saw the city\u2019s \u201chardest days\u201d, said Mohammad Suleiman (42), chief of the Nabatieh Ambulance Service. Just 13 paramedics in his organisation remained, down from around 45 before most of the remaining civilians had been evacuated.<\/p>\n The paramedics\u2019 base is outside Najdeh Hospital, which remained open for emergency cases throughout the war. The road to the emergency room was littered with glass \u2013 the remnants of strikes nearby. <\/p>\n Sadek Alaik, an emergency doctor and general surgeon, said he had been in the hospital since March 2nd, apart from a quick trip out to see his daughter. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s our duty to stay here,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m from here, this is my country, my people.\u201d <\/p>\n His own area, Yahmour, was occupied, he said, and his house \u201ccompletely destroyed\u201d. If peace comes, he said he might be able to stay in his sister\u2019s home. \u201cFor us, the most important [thing] is the ceasefire: stop killing, stop massacres.\u201d<\/p>\n Alaik has been treating \u201ceverything\u201d, from head, chest, inhalation and abdominal injuries, to \u201cmutilated extremities\u201d. <\/p>\n At the beginning of the war, he said, there was a huge civilian toll. Many refused to leave home because they had nowhere to go, he said. \u201cMove to live on the street? It\u2019s not a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Chafi Fouany, the hospital\u2019s medical director, said they were aware of how difficult it would be to reopen the facility if it ever closed down. All deliveries, including fuel to power the generators that run the hospital, need to be approved through a mechanism which involves alerts being given to the Israeli military, making future operations uncertain. <\/p>\n In their headquarters nearby, one of the paramedics pointed towards an ashen mark on the road below, where a car was targeted by a drone strike. A man on a motorbike suddenly appeared on the same road \u2013 a \u201csuicide mission\u201d, one of the observers suggested. Soon afterwards, there was another explosion: the motorbike was hit by a drone and the driver was killed. The paramedics went out to retrieve his body.<\/p>\n Suleiman is the one who gives the final okay to his crews to deploy to the site of an air strike. His team are volunteers, he said, aided by donations. In peace time, they have other jobs \u2013 an engineer, a dentist, an IT worker. Three have been killed in the past three months, putting them among 133 medics killed in total, according to Lebanon\u2019s health ministry. <\/p>\n The dead include Suleiman\u2019s teenage son Joud, who was targeted in March with a fellow paramedic, Ali Jaber. The pair had been distributing food to civilians who remained in the city, he said. They were on a clearly-marked motorbike \u2013 Suleiman pulls out a picture of them smiling on it \u2013 before the attack.<\/p>\n Joud had wanted to help people since he was six years old, his father said. His dream was to be a civil defence member and he refused to leave Nabatieh when the war began. \u201cHe told me, \u2018if you want to go back to Beirut, go, [and] I will stay here with the team\u2019,\u201d said Suleiman. \u201cIt\u2019s God\u2019s will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Suleiman went straight back to work after the funeral. \u201cThis is from in our soul what we are doing, this is our doctrine.\u201d <\/p>\n As he spoke, a warplane flew overhead. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re expecting a strike,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Soon one came, then two, three, four. The warplanes continued rumbling. A drone was audible overhead.<\/p>\n The paramedics in Nabatieh said they were on a humanitarian mission, independent from Hizbullah, whom some don\u2019t agree with for \u201cpolitical\u201d reasons.<\/p>\n Hammoud, a 31-year-old software engineer from the village of Houmine el Faouqa, has been volunteering as a paramedic for three years. He stayed for 96 days without seeing his family, he said. In that time, he saw many people killed, including a displaced man going to fetch money from his home and an old lady watering her plants. People distributing aid \u2013 food and medicine \u2013 were killed and the distributions halted, he says. <\/p>\n Israel has denied targeting civilians, saying its war is against Iranian-backed Hizbullah alone. From what Hammoud said he has seen, \u201cany civilian car is considered a threat\u201d.<\/p>\n Hammoud said they have been gathering evidence of the attacks on civilians. \u201cWe have everything on our GoPro film but no one cares.\u201d <\/p>\n They film inside their ambulances too, he said, collecting evidence they can use to counter Israeli claims that ambulances are being used for military purposes.<\/p>\n He says they consider their work as paramedics \u201cas a duty towards our people . . . every Lebanese [person], we consider them our family.\u201d<\/p>\n Now they are waiting to see if the new ceasefire will hold, or if it will be a ceasefire in name only.<\/p>\n Between the April 16th ceasefire agreement coming into force and June 11th, the World Health Organisation says<\/a> more than 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon and almost 3,640 injured, 348 of whom ended up in intensive care. After Monday\u2019s announcement, Nabatieh feels less like a no-go zone, but safety is far from guaranteed, Hammoud said. \u201cWe still don\u2019t have clear information.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Paramedics](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/V7ATVBFCFZFGTAYLV3MNZQ3BFA.jpg\")
Paramedics watch for Israeli airstrikes from the headquarters of the Nabatieh Ambulance Service, southern Lebanon. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n![\"Mohammad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Q2RKCYNMWVBHFDSMUTRH4Z37WU.jpg\")
Mohammad Suleiman, chief of the Nabatieh Ambulance Service, pictured in the service’s headquarters in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n![\"Mohammad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WM5PNVSQTNDSLOXPEEOPGXCHEY.jpg\")
Mohammad Suleiman, chief of the Nabatieh Ambulance Service, shows a picture of his son Joud, who was killed aged just 15, with Ali Jaber, who was also killed. Photograph: Sally Hayden <\/p>\n