Lebanese Red Cross volunteer: 'We never imagined we would end up in the front line of a war zone'

No matter how many people are told where Lebanese Red Cross crews will be, they can still get caught up in Israel's ongoing and brutal war on Hezbollah that has so far cost more than 2,500 lives in Lebanon, writes Neil Michael

A Lebanese Red Cross volunteer searches for remains in the rubble of a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in north Lebanon earlier this month. Photo: AP/Hussein Malla)

When Ali Saad is tasked with making sure Unifil knows his ambulance crews are heading into areas in southern Lebanon being bombed by Israel, he thinks about his “sons” — all 25 of them.

The 57-year-old former Lebanese bank manager’s job is to liaise with Unifil officials every time Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) crews are tasked to mount rescue missions. It is then down to the peacekeepers to inform the Israelis that Ali’s crews are heading into a particular area.

The calls are far from a guarantee of safety but they have to be made so all sides are at least aware where the crews will be.

“We do not get a green light to go in,” he explained. “But we take as many precautions as we can, from the very limited number of options we have. We know the risks but we have to go. People depend on us, and in many cases, we are their only hope of surviving.”

An injured cameraman being moved by the Lebanese Red Cross to a hospital after he is injured at the site of an Israeli airstrike at a compound housing journalists, killing three media staffers from two different news agencies, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency on Friday. Photo: AP/Mohammed Zaatari

For Ali though, the threat of being caught up in bomb blasts or gunfire is one he and his fellow volunteers face every day. But while he is worried for himself and for his wife Bassima Fawaz — who normally works for the Irish Defence Forces as an interpreter — he is also worried for his three sons.

Two work in the Tibnine branch of the LRC, and are part of the 25 volunteers covering an area of south Lebanon which has some 40 towns and villages in it. Meanwhile, he has a third son who volunteers in the LRC HQ in Beirut.

“I feel that all of the volunteers are my sons,” Ali, who has been on call 24-hours-a-day since the Israeli offensive started last month, said. “This is because one of my sons could be in one of those ambulances sent on a rescue or recovery mission.

“When a mission is scheduled, and I have to immediately notify Unifil, I never ask who is in the ambulance. I just take the view that everybody in those ambulances is my son.

“I make sure every time that I provide awareness to Unifil and make sure they know what we are doing and that they tell the other sides.”

Girls from the Tibnine orphanage where Ali Saad helps out. File picture: Ali Saad/Tibnine Orphanage

Ali, who helps run the Tibnine Orphanage that Ireland helps fund and support, added: “Sometimes, when it is particularly risky, I keep resending the messages to Unifil and ask them to remind the other sides that our volunteers are coming.”

“On the ground, it is very hard because of the risks involved when evacuating the injured or the dead,” he said. “The Geneva Convention on Humanitarian Aid does not always act as it should as an umbrella to protect us at a time of war, because not everybody respects it.

“Instead, we only depend on our God and in our prayers. The various human rights and humanitarian conventions have been broken many times in this country and all over the world.

“On Tuesday, for example, at midday, we had four ambulances evacuating casualties in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon. Our ambulances were the first to arrive after about 15, 20 minutes after the call came in, and they got to work, and started to evacuate people.

They had to call in two more ambulances for support, because the damage was huge. They were working for about two hours, and evacuating casualties when at around 2pm, the same area was again targeted.

The incident was a reminder that no matter how many people are told where LRC crews will be, they can still get caught up in the ongoing and brutal war that has so far cost more than 2,500 lives in Lebanon.

So far, since September 23, LRC crews have been caught up in at least four different blasts and colleagues injured. But the incident isn't the only reminder his crews have had in recent days.

On Wednesday, at around 2.45pm, one of their ambulances was "riddled" with bullets as the three-vehicle convoy arrived at a southern Lebanon village to rescue people. The crew then jumped out and hid behind the middle vehicle before getting into it and driving away.

Even as they were trying to escape, the vehicles were again hit, with a series of at least four bullets going though the windscreen of one of the vehicles, injuring one of the volunteers.

The incident, which is being investigated, was described by the LRC later as one damaged and one disabled ambulance having been "exposed to shots".

Ali said:

Every time a volunteer goes out, he says goodbye to his friends and relatives because he might never come back, and that includes my boys.

“Our assets are those volunteers that fully respect the ethos and principles of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent and the Geneva Conventions. They are completely neutral, they help everybody who is injured, regardless of who they are.

“When I started volunteering, and also when my sons started, we never imagined it would end up this tough. We wanted to play our part in society and do humanitarian work.

“We never imagined we would end up in the front line of a war zone. Never."

The International Committee of the Red Cross

One of the Irish aid workers behind the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)'s humanitarian efforts in Lebanon has vowed — no matter how bad it gets, “we are not leaving”.

ICRC Rapid Deployment Co-ordinator Stephen Ryan was speaking just hours after three of Ali’s colleagues had been injured. “The situation is really challenging on almost every front,” Mr Ryan, from Mallow, north Cork, said.

“But one of the things that I can say about the Red Cross is that the Red Cross doesn't leave. The Lebanese Red Cross was here before this conflict escalated and it's going to stay.

These are Lebanese people who are fully committed to doing their best to help anyone, whoever they are.

“This is something that the Lebanese Red Cross should be praised for, because they do it day in, day out on a voluntary basis.”

Just last week, the ICRC deployed a specialized surgical team experienced in war injuries to a hospital in southern Beirut to offer life-saving care and help relieve exhausted medical staff.

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The surgical team, including an emergency room doctor, a surgeon and an anesthetist, is experienced in the unique and destructive injuries caused by weapons of war.

They will operate with ICRC’s existing 22-person team out of Rafik Hariri University Hospital in a deployment co-ordinated with the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

A shipment of medical supplies sent by the ICRC to the hospital earlier in the month helped equip and supply the facility’s trauma unit. The shipment was also used to help bolster a similar unit about 54 km east of Beirut at the Elias Hrawi Governmental Hospital in the Bekaa Valley.

The ICRC is due to deploy an additional 10 of its hospital specialists, including nurses and doctors, to the unit in the coming weeks. Stephen said: “This helps underline our commitment to the crisis.

The ICRC is, along with the Lebanese Red Cross, the type of organization that, no matter how bad it gets, we are not leaving.

“While the work might get more challenging, and while the needs could continue to get worse and worse and greater and greater, one of the things I can be confident about is that the Red Cross isn't going anywhere except to try and help.”

On the situation on the ground, he is stuck for words.

“I don't think anybody can really, truly appreciate what it's like to be in an area affected by armed conflict,” he said.

“But there are people still in their homes in the south hearing air strikes around them, who are hearing violence happening nearby, who are getting warnings and have to flee their homes in the dead of night.

“I don't think most people can appreciate what that's like unless you've been up close to it. It's very abstract, and these days, of course, we see lots of videos on social media.

“But if you're in a place and violence is happening to that scale near you, it's not something that you can imagine sitting at home.

“This is something that if you experience it, you will never forget it. There are no words I can give you to explain what that feels like.”

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