Vital civilian infrastructure, particularly medical facilities and rescue teams, is granted special protection under international humanitarian law. Yet documented data indicate that this protection was systematically undermined during the recent war on Lebanon.
Between September and December 2024, UNICEF documented the deaths of over 4,000 civilians and injuries to more than 16,000 others, with civilian casualties continuing to rise significantly even after the ceasefire was declared. Moreover, direct and deliberate targeting of rescue teams and healthcare facilities was reported. According to Human Rights Watch, the Lebanese Ministry of Health recorded the deaths of at least 222 health and rescue workers between October and November 2024. Israeli military operations caused extensive damage to Lebanese infrastructure, estimated at around USD 3.4 billion, with economic losses exceeding USD 5 billion.
"The number of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon from October to November 2024 ranks among the highest number of attacks recorded globally in the 21st century."
The Legal Agenda documented the attacks on Lebanese Civil Defence Centres: between September and 16 November 2024, five centres were completely destroyed, with another 15 to 20 partially damaged. These attacks claimed the lives of 27 Civil Defence personnel and rendered 42 vehicles inoperable. Among these attacks was an airstrike on the regional Civil Defence Directorate Centre in Baalbek, which killed 12 team members following a rescue mission on the evening of 14 November 2024. This investigation, based on open-source intelligence and verified digital evidence, seeks to reinforce the necessity for accountability, reparations, and to ensure that this and other documented incidents are subject to independent investigations that prevent impunity.
Context and Background
In September 2024, hostilities between Hezbollah and the Israeli military escalated sharply. Israel launched a wide-ranging ground invasion alongside an intensive aerial campaign across Lebanon. The consequences for civilian infrastructure and the population were immediate and devastating; according to Amnesty International, over 500 people were killed in the first 24 hours alone. As the bombardment intensified, Israel began implementing its standard evacuation protocol, issuing and air-dropping leaflets across wide parts of Lebanese territory. Among the areas ordered to evacuate on 30 October 2024 were the city of Baalbek and the nearby towns of Ain Bourday and Douris.
This wave of evacuation orders coincided with deliberate and systematic strikes on vital infrastructure in the targeted regions. The destruction extended to heritage sites and essential public services, including water treatment plants, roads, schools, hospitals, and rescue teams.
The Attack
On the evening of 14 November 2024, media outlets reported the deaths of several staff and volunteers of the Lebanese Civil Defence in the town of Douris, Baalbek district.
The Lebanese Civil Defence operates under the authority of the Ministry of Interior. It is an official body responsible for the protection of people, property, and the environment, mitigating risks to public safety during natural disasters and emergencies caused by hostile acts, including wartime conditions.
The airstrike drew widespread condemnation. It killed 12 civil defence personnel, staff and volunteers, who were inside the centre's building after returning from an emergency response to an earlier attack in the Al-Shaab neighbourhood. The Baalbek Regional Civil Defence Centre is one of the main branches of the Directorate, overseeing both administrative and field operations for 15 sub-centres across the Baalbek-Hermel governorate.
Following the Israeli military's order to evacuate all areas in and around Baalbek, a series of focused social media posts began circulating in November 2024, reporting evacuations across Baalbek City. One such report, dated 3 November 2024, referred to the clearance of a building located near the Douris municipality, approximately 734 metres from the Baalbek Regional Civil Defence Centre.
On 14 November 2024, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike on a two-storey building in the Al-Shaab neighbourhood of Baalbek, killing and injuring a number of people. Rescue efforts were carried out by the Islamic Health Society and Civil Defence teams, who were engaged in recovering victims and clearing rubble at the site.
In the hours that followed the Al-Shaab strike, social media accounts reported two additional air raids in the Baalbek district. The first hit the town of Saraain, east of Baalbek, at 20:14:04 local time. The second struck Bezzeliyye just two minutes later, at 20:16:19.
Less than 30 minutes later, at 20:40:06, a post by Al-Nujabaa TV on X reported two further airstrikes, this time targeting the town of Douris, just south of Baalbek. A simultaneous report was published by Al Mayadeen's Telegram account at 20:39 the same evening.
At 20:47:14, @fouadkhreiss posted that one of the strikes had hit a Civil Defence centre in the Baalbek area, sharing an image showing a destroyed vehicle, possibly a fire engine belonging to the centre. Minutes later, at 20:52:39, Lebanon's Al Jadeed TV confirmed the same, citing its reporters on the ground.
One eyewitness recounted that the Civil Defence team had only just returned from the Al-Shaab site, having completed a rescue operation. The responders then split; some heading home, others returning to the centre to rest and prepare for further deployments. Less than two hours later, the centre itself was bombed. Those who remained inside were killed in the blast.
Based on the sequence of public reports and verified timestamps, the window for the strike on the Baalbek Regional Civil Defence Centre can be narrowed to between 20:00 (8:00 PM), as indicated by the Legal Agenda in one of its reports, and 20:52, which marks the earliest confirmed time a media outlet publicly reported the centre had been hit, on Thursday, 14 November 2024.
Geolocation of the Strike
Online material linked to the incident frequently referenced terms such as "the Regional Civil Defence building" and "the Civil Defence Centre in Douris, Baalbek." These cues prompted a geospatial investigation using Google Maps to pinpoint the exact location of the facility. The search led to a structure identified as the Regional Directorate of Civil Defence in the town of Douris. Visual analysis confirmed a precise match with multiple surrounding landmarks: a mosque situated next to the building, and three distinctive buildings located directly opposite.
Reference images showing the three distinctive buildings surrounding the Civil Defence Directorate in Douris, sourced from broadcasts by Al-Ghad, Al Jadeed, and Al Mayadeen, as well as images published by An-Nahar and the official Lebanese Civil Defence Facebook page.
The geolocation of the strike was confirmed at coordinates (33.993216, 36.186445), placing the target squarely within Douris, southwest of Baalbek City. The airstrike reduced the Civil Defence facility to rubble and caused varying degrees of damage to residential buildings within an estimated 51-metre radius.
To further corroborate the extent of destruction, two satellite images captured by the Sentinel-2 satellite were analysed: one dated 10 November 2024 (four days prior to the attack), and the other from 15 November (the day after the strike). The comparison clearly shows the damage sustained by the Baalbek Regional Civil Defence Centre.
The damage was extensive. The building was obliterated, and satellite imagery showed scorched and destroyed Civil Defence vehicles around the site. According to The Legal Agenda, the strike rendered three fire engines and one debris-removal vehicle inoperable, and caused partial damage to nearby residential buildings.
A set of photographs documenting the damage inflicted on the Baalbek Regional Civil Defence Centre in Douris.
Witness Accounts
The Legal Agenda conducted interviews with several eyewitnesses. Among them was Lara Karkaba, a volunteer at the Baalbek Regional Civil Defence Centre. She recounted that her last communication with Centre Director Bilal Raad occurred just minutes before the strike. The call was made via the centre's four-way radio system, as the landline had gone out of service due to interference caused by the intensifying aerial bombardment. Lara explained that Raad routinely contacted her to report the centre's daily activity statistics, as the Baalbek Regional Centre oversees 15 sub-centres. She added that "during the call, the Israeli air force struck the towns of Shmestar and Hosh al-Nabi. Seconds later, the line went dead, just as I heard a sound that resembled a missile." Lara lost her father in the strike, along with several colleagues, in the evening attack on Thursday, 14 November 2024.
Hassan, another member of the Baalbek Civil Defence team, recalled that he had been at the centre with colleagues following the completion of a rescue operation. He left the building about half an hour before the airstrike to fetch dinner. On his way back, he heard a powerful explosion. Initially, he assumed he would be summoned for a new rescue mission, until he received a message confirming the centre itself had been hit. When he arrived, he found the building completely destroyed. Only the bodies of five of his colleagues were intact; the rest had been torn apart by the blast.
Estimates of casualties from the strike varied, ranging from 12 to 15 dead or wounded among Civil Defence personnel. The Legal Agenda documented the deaths of 14, listing their names. Meanwhile, on 16 November 2024, the Lebanese Civil Defence Directorate posted an official announcement on its Facebook page, mourning the loss of 12 staff members in the airstrike on the Baalbek Regional Centre in Douris. The post included their names and photographs.
Among the dead was the centre's director, Bilal Raad, who was responsible for receiving and relaying evacuation alerts to residents in the area. Sources confirmed that the sheer force of the explosion left several bodies unrecognisable, necessitating DNA testing by forensic authorities to identify them.
Photographs of the victims' ID cards.