Hussein Jaber, a 32-year-old first responder, was killed by an Israeli drone strike in Nabatieh, Lebanon, on May 12, 2026, while attempting a rescue. His death has left his family and community in mourning just days before his first wedding anniversary.
Key points
Hussein Jaber was killed by an Israeli drone strike.
The incident occurred in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon.
Jaber was a veteran first responder with Lebanon's interior ministry.
He died while attempting to rescue a wounded man.
His death occurred just before his first wedding anniversary.
Mentioned in this story
Hussein JaberAhmad NouraNabatiehSidon
Saida, Lebanon — May 13, 2026. The father of Hussein Jaber, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh on May 12, 2026, cries during the funeral ceremony.
The father of Hussein Jaber, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Nabatieh, in southern Lebanon, on May 12, cries during the funeral ceremony in Sidon the following day.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
SIDON, Lebanon — In this southern Lebanese city, Nareej Ramal is weeping in the arms of her father-in-law; the civil defense uniform her husband, Hussein Jaber, wore every day is draped around her shoulders like a final embrace.
Jaber, 32, a veteran first responder with Lebanon's interior ministry, was killed along with his colleague Ahmad Noura, 45, by an Israeli drone on May 12 in Nabatieh, a city in southern Lebanon, as they tried to rescue a man wounded in another strike moments earlier. His death came just days before Ramal and Jaber's first wedding anniversary.
The two men were the latest of over 100 first responders killed in Israeli airstrikes since the war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah began on March 2. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that began in April has not slowed Israeli attacks.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of using ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes, without providing evidence, claims Lebanon's health ministry denies.
International law protects hospitals, rescue teams and ambulance crews. "But what we see now, no, it's not that," says Mona Boud Zeid, the director of Al Najdeh al-Shaabiyeh Hospital, which treats the wounded in southern Lebanon. From the hospital's location in Nabatieh, she can see the airstrikes.
"It's like what we see now in Gaza. It's the same. ... Maybe our hospitals, our nurses, our doctors will go through the same."
Gaza's health ministry says Israeli attacks killed more than 1,700 medical personnel and first responders during the war.
Q&A
What happened to Hussein Jaber in Nabatieh on May 12, 2026?
Hussein Jaber was killed by an Israeli drone strike while trying to rescue a wounded man during another attack.
Who else was killed alongside Hussein Jaber in the drone strike?
Ahmad Noura, a 45-year-old colleague of Hussein Jaber, was also killed in the same drone strike.
What is the significance of the date May 12, 2026, for Hussein Jaber's family?
May 12, 2026, marks the day Hussein Jaber was killed, just days before he and his wife were to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
How are first responders in Lebanon affected by the recent violence?
First responders in Lebanon are experiencing a mix of duty and grief as they cope with the loss of colleagues like Hussein Jaber amid ongoing violence.
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Hundreds of mourners marched on Thursday behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Their fellow paramedics, dressed in uniform, carried the coffins draped with Lebanese flags on their shoulders and saluted them, while mourners wept.
Hundreds of mourners march on April 30, 2026, behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Hundreds of mourners marched on Thursday behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Their fellow paramedics, dressed in uniform, carried the coffins draped with Lebanese flags on their shoulders and saluted them, while mourners wept.
Fellow paramedics, dressed in uniform, carry their colleagues' coffins, draped with Lebanese flags, on their shoulders as mourners gather and weep in southern Lebanon on April 30, 2026.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Hundreds of mourners marched on Thursday behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Their fellow paramedics, dressed in uniform, carried the coffins draped with Lebanese flags on their shoulders and saluted them, while mourners wept.
Hundreds of mourners march behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics on April 30, 2026, who were killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
According to the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, which has personnel at the Nabatieh hospital, Jaber and Noura were killed after rushing to the scene of an earlier strike. A third medic with them was injured. The aid group called the killing of the rescue workers "part of an alarming pattern."
Outside the hospital morgue on May 13, a dozen uniformed first responders kept a somber, silent vigil, waiting to lift the bodies into a waiting ambulance. In the background, colleagues and hospital workers sobbed.
Wrapped in white shrouds and covered with flowers, the bodies were transferred from Nabatieh to a burial site in Haret Saida, near Sidon. Their burials will be temporary because it's impossible to bury them in their own villages due to ongoing attacks. For many families, the ritual means enduring the pain of burial twice.
"They were never just colleagues," says team leader Abdallah Hallal, his voice breaking. "We have been together for more than 20 years," he says, speaking about Noura. "We saw a lot together. We lived through a lot together. No words can describe what we feel."
Hallal has spent more than 20 years as a search-and-rescue team leader, responding to emergencies and pulling survivors from the rubble on the frontlines of disaster and war.
Hundreds of mourners marched on Thursday behind the coffins of three Lebanese Civil Defense paramedics killed by Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon. Their fellow paramedics, dressed in uniform, carried the coffins draped with Lebanese flags on their shoulders and saluted them, while mourners wept.
Families mourn their loved ones in Tyre, Lebanon, on April 30, 2026.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Nabatiyeh, Lebanon — May 13, 2026. Pictures of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh on May 12, 2026, displayed on an ambulance. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR.
Pictures of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh, are displayed on an ambulance in Nabatiyeh on May 13.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Nabatiyeh, Lebanon — May 13, 2026. Members of the Civil Defense team mourn the loss of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh on May 12, 2026. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR.
Members of the Civil Defense team mourn the loss of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh on May 12.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Nabatiyeh, Lebanon — May 13, 2026. The bodies of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh on May 12, 2026, in the morgue. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR.
The bodies of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on Nabatieh on May 12, lay in the morgue the next day.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
The same image has been repeating throughout the war, in different scenes, the same tears of first responders.
At the end of April, helmets, stretchers and rescue vehicles stood motionless at the headquarters of first responders struck in earlier attacks, transformed into silent symbols of sacrifice in Tyre, a city in southern Lebanon. They formed the backdrop to a ceremony for Hadi Daher, Hussein Al-Sati and Hussein Ghadbouni, first responders killed while responding to a strike in the town of Majdal Zoun.
Hundreds of mourners gathered to pay tribute under the Lebanese anthem, songs, fireworks and grief, a farewell marked equally by honor and loss, while shadows stretched across the soil of the temporary graveyard.
The attacks during a ceasefire are a bitter reminder of how war devours the lives of everyone caught in the crossfire. Many of the dead have been civilians.
NPR contacted the Israeli military for comment about the Lebanese medics and did not hear back,
Mourners, relatives and collagees attend the funeral in Saida, Lebanon on May 13, 2026 of Lebanese civil defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh the day before.
Mourners, relatives and colleagues attend a funeral on May 13 for Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on Nabatieh the day before.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Baissariyeh, Lebanon. On April 23, 2026, Mourners attended the funeral of Amal Khalil, a journalist who was killed in an Israeli attack in south Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sánchez
Mourners attend a funeral in Baisariyah, Lebanon, on April 23, 2026, for Amal Khalil, a journalist who was killed in an Israeli attack.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Baissariyeh, Lebanon. On April 23, 2026, Mourners attended the funeral of Amal Khalil, a journalist who was killed in an Israeli attack in south Lebanon. Diego Ibarra Sánchez
Mourners attend a funeral in Baisariyah, Lebanon, on April 23, 2026, for Amal Khalil, a journalist who was killed in an Israeli attack.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Saida, Lebanon. May 13, 2026. Mourners, relatives and collagees attend the funeral of Lebanese civil defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura, who were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Nabatieh on May 12, 2026. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Mourners, relatives and colleagues attend the funeral of Lebanese Civil Defense members Hussein Jaber and Ahmad Noura in Sidon, Lebanon, on May 13.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
More than 380 people have been killed since the ceasefire began, turning what was meant to be a pause in violence into yet another chapter of mourning.
A few weeks earlier, relatives, friends and colleagues gathered in the home of Amal Khalil, a journalist for the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar, who was killed in an Israeli strike in the southern town of Baisariyah. The attack also wounded her colleague, freelance photojournalist Zeinab Faraj.
Israeli attacks have meanwhile killed at least 2,896 people in Lebanon and displaced nearly a million people from the south since the war began, according to official Lebanese figures. Israel says Hezbollah's strikes since March have killed 18 soldiers and four civilians.
An injured civilian is transferred by ambulance from Nabatieh' hospital to a hospital in Sidon on Thursday.
An injured civilian is transferred by ambulance from Nabatieh' hospital to a hospital in Sidon on May 14.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Nabatieh, Lebanon. May 14, 2026. Nurses tend to a young member of the Farhat family, wounded in an Israeli strike that struck her home in Arabsalim on May 13, 2026, killing most of her family.. Diego Ibarra Sánchez
Nurses tend to a young member of the Farhat family in Nabatieh, Lebanon, on May 14, who had been wounded the day before in an Israeli strike that struck her home in Arabsalim, killing most of her family.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Saida, Lebanon — May 13, 2026. Religious leaders pray for a Lebanese civilian recently killed in southern Lebanon. Since the war erupted on March 2, 2026, 2,882 people have been killed. During the ceasefire, 380 people have been killed. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR.
Religious leaders pray for a Lebanese civilian recently killed in southern Lebanon in Sidon, Lebanon, on May 13.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
Nabatieh, Lebanon. May 14, 2026. Mohammed Suleiman, Nabatieh’s chief paramedic prays at the grave of his son Joud Suleimanwas killed in an Israeli strike in March, along with Ali Jaber, 24, while they were on their way to a rescue mission. Diego Ibarra Sánchez
Mohammed Suleiman, Nabatieh's chief paramedic, prays at the grave of his son, Joud Suleiman, in Nabatieh on May 14. Joud was killed in an Israeli strike in March.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR
Even in grief, there is work to be done.
Ali Al Rida Hammoud, a member of the ambulance and paramedic teams in Nabatieh, puts on body armor as he prepares for another shift. Injured at the beginning of the war, he still carries the weight of what he has lived through on his shoulders — especially the memories of his fallen friends, among them Joud Suleiman. The son of Nabatieh's chief paramedic, Suleiman was killed in an Israeli strike in March alongside 24-year-old Ali Jaber while on their way to a rescue mission.
"I'm not a hero … but I'm not afraid," Hammoud says about the increasing danger. "I've witnessed so many things, but I believe I can protect my people, my country. Despite everything, you have to keep moving. Where should we go? This is our country."
Nabatiyeh, Lebanon — May 13, 2026. Ali, a paramedic, gets ready before his shift begins in Nabatieh. Since the war erupted on March 2, 2026, 2,882 people have been killed. During the ceasefire, 380 people have been killed. Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR.
Ali Al Rida Hammoud, a member of the ambulance and paramedic teams in Nabatieh, gets ready before his shift begins on May 13.
Diego Ibarra Sánchez/for NPR
