Douris, Lebanon – When I met Ali Haj Hassan in Douris, a town in northeastern Lebanon, he was sifting through all that remained of a state-run civil defense center: a massive pile of rubble. It was Nov. 15, 2024, and the night before, an Israeli airstrike had leveled the center, killing 15 first responders and five bystanders. “They were my friends,” Ali told me. “They were like brothers.” 

Ali was 17 at the time, with a round face that spoke to his youth. During the war, he had made the decision to volunteer as a rescue worker. He pulled a firefighter jacket, a red hard hat, and a single work boot from the rubble, then carefully assembled them atop the pile. “Farewell, civil defense martyrs,” he scrawled on a piece of paper, pinning it onto the jacket and standing back to take in the makeshift memorial. 

Haidar al-Zein, another rescuer worker at the center, had just finished removing the bodies. “We were just helping,” he said. “Is this our sin? Is this the reason our friends are now in pieces?” 

Many were his colleagues of 18 years. He’d known them since joining the civil defense team as a university volunteer. When Israel escalated its bombardment of the region, they lived together at the center for days on end — ready to rush to the scene of strikes, scrambling to rescue civilians caught in the line of fire. 

Haidar spoke in a voice that was barely audible, fighting to hold back tears. “We were a team, brothers, we’d go out on missions together,” he managed. “We’d care, protect, and help each other. …  We’d drink coffee together, joke around, and laugh.”

Most of those at the civil defense center were volunteers, putting their daytime jobs on hold to serve the rescue efforts of the war. One of the men killed, whose name was also Ali, was a chef, and another a barber, frequently trimming the rescue workers’ hair.  “I greeted them just yesterday. I wish I’d died with them, honestly … ” Haidar went on, and without finishing his sentence turned around, leaning on the tree behind him for support, and broke down sobbing. 

The rescue workers at the Douris strike were not the first who’ve broken down in tears while speaking with me, and they would not be the last. Israel has repeatedly attacked first responders during its war in Lebanon, against what it says are Hezbollah targets. On Oct. 8, 2023, Hezbollah launched an attack on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and Israel retaliated immediately.