Lebanon’s Civil Defense responders face precarity and uncertainty
The Douris Civil Defense Station is a scene of rubble and dust, with a first responder’s ranger humbly honoured at the forefront. It belongs to one of the 15 fallen Civil Defense members who were killed on the evening of 14 November 2024 when an Israeli airstrike targeted the center.
The General Directorate of the Lebanese Civil Defense, founded in 1939, is Lebanon’s national emergency response mechanism and an element of the country’s defense system, according to Decree Law #50 of 1967. Its responders bear the burden of the institution’s long-held lack of resources and capacities. The directorate’s conditions deteriorated further with the onset of the economic crisis in 2019, and the 2023-2024 Israeli hostilities. The lack of specialised equipment and facilities and the overreliance of volunteers represent two central problems facing the directorate for today, and compromising responders’ preparedness and labour conditions.
Standing in front of what he considers his destroyed second home, Khaled Zeim marks his 22-year long service at the directorate. A veteran first responder, he joined the Douris Civil Defense Station in 2003 and is now its director. “I started volunteering when I was 27 years old. I worked as a school bus driver at the same time, and would serve in the afternoons, until 2023 when I signed a fixed-term contract after a long battle of demanding our official employment by the government”.
Living through multiple tragedies and carrying out countless missions throughout the years, Khaled describes the war on Lebanon as the most destructive, where more than 200 emergency responders were killed in Israeli strikes. He was in Douris on the evening of the attack which killed 15 of his peers. “They were my brothers. I’ve known them for 20 years”.
Two weeks prior, on the morning of 30 October, Baalbek was marked in red in an evacuation warning issued by the IDF spokesperson Avichay Adrai on X. The 4 main areas of the city; its centre, Douris, Ain Bourday and Abaat, were ordered to immediately evacuate. Shortly after, the late Bilal Raad who served as the Station’s President since 2015, reported receiving multiple calls on his personal cell phone by Israeli forces, ordering him to evacuate the city and the centre. The team was temporarily stationed without gear in the nearby Sheikh Abdallah Barracks and returned when the bombing campaign ended. In a testimony to The Washington Post, Raad reported returning and pulling people from under the rubble with minimal gear. Raad was killed two weeks later when the station was directly struck.
“As a human, I’m unable to heal from what happened. I went out of the centre for a few minutes and came back to see my peers in pieces. We pulled them with our hands”, Khaled says.
Grief and disbelief prevail for Salman Sleiman, the Baalbek Regional Stations’ Director and Khaled’s peer. “I will tell you why they bombed us. On the 30th of October, the people of Baalbek evacuated but then came back to their homes after the bombing ended. Israelis lost their mind at not being able to scare our people away. They know that the civil defense is a source of safety and reassurance for them. They bombed us to break our spirit”, he confidently says.
This attack is deemed an “apparent war crime” as per a report published by Human Rights Watch in 2024. While the Lebanese government issued a decision in April 2024 to give the International Criminal Court jurisdiction (ICC) to initiate an investigation, it backtracked shortly after. Human Rights Watch’s Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss highlights the absence of an international accountability mechanism for the victims of war crimes committed since October 2023. “The government has not taken tangible steps to ensure accountability. It can grant the ICC jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute, and it can initiate a domestic investigation”, Kaiss reports. More and more war crimes are being documented in Lebanon as the ceasefire continues to be violated by Israel, and accountability efforts are confined to documentation only.
Precarity is characteristic of Lebanon’s Civil Defense as the country continues to sustain multiple crises and emergencies. “The entire country is suffering on all levels for the past 6 years, whether economically, socially or psychologically”, says Kawthar Harb, a 26-year young first responder at the Ghobeiry 2 Station in Dahieh, Beirut’s Southern Suburbs. Some 80 kilometres east of Douris, the centre was partially damaged in a strike that landed close. Kawthar reports losing 5 of her peers during the war.
Political instability, cabinet resignations and lack of public funding derailed structural reforms in the directorate, and more specifically the long-standing demand of employment and full-time contracting of civil defense responders.
Across from Kawthar, Ghassan Zheim sits at his desk. He is the director of the station and manager of Dahieh's operations. Zheim has been serving for 17-years. “We demanded official employment for a very long time because it is our right”, he explains.
In August 2023, the employment law went into effect. The directorate selected 2,124 volunteers to be contracted as government staff, allowing them to receive a salary and be eligible for social security and benefits. They receive health insurance, pension benefits, and compensation in case of death on duty or permanent injury. Additionally, the directorate covers the school tuition fees of responders’ children.
The employment law proved to contain some loopholes as soon as it started being implemented. While a semblance of financial security was ensured through monthly salaries, compensation was low and overtime was not compensated. Additionally, a clear hiring structure remains necessary. “Long-term volunteers are waiting to be hired. We can’t depend on volunteers because they need to make a living at the end of the day”, Khaled says, adding that the total number of volunteers and employees must increase to improve the directorate’s preparedness and efficiency.
A committee that represents responders’ demands, was established by responders in the Douris station to demand labour rights. Volunteer responder Walid Tallouj, who has been serving for 11 years. “I joined because of how much I used to hear about it. I didn’t join because I wanted a job”, says volunteer responder Walid Tallouj, who has been serving for 11 years. He attests that the country needs a well-equipped civil defense institution that has enough personnel and resources to respond to emergencies and disasters. Another pressing need is a dedicated budget for regular equipment and centre maintenance, and dedicated resources and personnel to train volunteers and new joiners.
In Ghobeiry’s station in Dahieh, the team was forced to relocate to another potentially safer location, alongside the four other stations, to strategically position tents around the area, forming a belt that allows faster intervention. Even with that, Israeli forces kept trying to limit the scope of their work. Ghassan reports that on the night of the assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah in September 2024, a team was dispatched to carry out a rescue mission, in coordination with the army and UNIFIL. Two drone strikes landed in close proximity to them on the way to the bombing site and they were forced to return. “It is clear that the IDF is targeting us. We kept playing cat and mouse”.
Resource efficiency and strategic action are a testament to the strength and ad-hoc preparedness of the Lebanese civil defense. While stationed in a tent around Dahieh, the civil defense teams shared resources and divided tasks. Younger responders like Kawthar took on logistical tasks such as coordinating regular meal provision for her peers. She stayed in her home in Dahieh with her father to stay close by. “Many of my colleagues were present on rotation even though many of them were displaced. Our work gave us power and steadfastness. It wasn’t possible to think on an individual level”, Kawthar explains.
Ghassan is hopeful and supportive of the directorate’s new leadership appointed in August 2025. He considers that meeting the demands of employees and volunteers is a priority, consisting of organising and increasing the institution’s funding and the unification of intervention strategies. Resources for training and a clear contracting mechanism remain needed as well, to meet the livelihood needs of responders and to ensure their commitment and professional development.
Responders call on the media for support in the civil defense’s mission, saying that regular coverage of their accomplishments as well as their struggles is needed. “We are not a scoop to be mentioned in passing. We protect people 365 days a year, we deserve to be protected and not be part of any conflict.”
Reporting Lebanon is a collaborative storytelling project that brings together independent Lebanese journalists to document everyday life in a country shaped by war, displacement, and prolonged instability. Through in-depth reportages and narrative-driven features, the project focuses on the human, social, and psychological realities that have unfolded in the aftermath of the 2023–2024 escalation – at a time when violence has formally subsided in parts of the country, yet insecurity and uncertainty persist. Rather than offering situational reports, Reporting Lebanon prioritizes long-form journalism that stays close to its protagonists. The project seeks to capture how people experience, remember, and endure war – and how its consequences continue to shape daily life long after the headlines fade. Reporting Lebanon is a cooperation between the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and zenith.
