Six Lebanese paramedics were killed in two Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon in the span of 24 hours, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Friday, condemning the attacks as violations of international law, Ada Derana reported citing Reuters.
An Israeli strike overnight Thursday into Friday in the southern Lebanese town of Hanaway killed four paramedics from the Islamic Health Association. On Friday morning, an Israeli strike in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr killed two medics from the Al-Rissala Scouts Association, the ministry said.
The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites at Hanaway where militants were present, and in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr it said soldiers identified and struck two Hezbollah militants riding motorcycles. In both incidents, the military said it was examining claims that “several uninvolved individuals in the area, who were not the targets of the strikes, were harmed,” adding it had taken steps to mitigate civilian harm by ordering residents in both areas to flee.
The Health Ministry distributed a video which it said was filmed in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr, showing two men in yellow vests on the side of a road tending to someone. When an ambulance approaches, a flash is seen and a loud boom goes off; the same men are then seen lying on the ground. Reuters confirmed the location of the video as the western edge of Deir Qanoun En-Nahr from buildings, trees and road layout matching archive imagery.
The ministry said six people were killed in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr in total, including the two medics and a Syrian child. The town was hit by an airstrike earlier this week that killed 14 people, the deadliest single strike since a tenuous ceasefire was announced last month.
More than 3,100 people have been killed in Lebanon since March 2, when Hezbollah fired at Israel in the opening salvos of a new war. The dead include 123 medics, more than 210 children and nearly 300 women, according to Health Ministry statistics shared on Friday.
International humanitarian law affords protection to medical workers and ambulances in conflict. The strikes follow recent Israeli operations in southern Lebanon that Beirut has cited as ceasefire violations.
