Lebanon says Israeli attack kills 3 emergency workers

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency personnel were killed and two wounded in an Israeli attack Saturday (Sep 7) on a civil defence team that had been fighting fires in the country’s south.
“Israeli enemy targeting of a Lebanese civil defence team that was putting out fires sparked by the recent Israeli strikes in the village of Froun led to the martyrdom of three emergency responders,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Two others were wounded, one of them critically, the statement said, adding that the toll was provisional.
Lebanon’s civil defence said in a statement that three of its employees were killed in “an Israeli strike that targeted a firefighting vehicle after they had finished a firefighting mission”.
The health ministry condemned “this blatant Israeli attack that targeted a team from an official body of the Lebanese state”, its statement said.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has exchanged near daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in a statement blasted Saturday’s attack, saying “this new aggression against Lebanon is a blatant violation of international laws … and human values”.
Hezbollah ally the Amal movement said two of its members were among the dead. It said they were killed “while carrying out their humanitarian and national duty defending Lebanon and the south”.
The health ministry said the attack was “the second of its kind against an emergency team in less than 12 hours”.
Earlier Saturday, the ministry said two emergency personnel from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were wounded when “the Israeli enemy deliberately targeted” near a fire they were heading to extinguish in south Lebanon’s Qabrikha, causing their vehicle to swerve.
Several militant groups operate health centres and emergency response operations in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah announced a string of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border on Saturday, including with Katyusha rockets and “explosives-laden drones”, some in stated response to “Israeli enemy attacks” on south Lebanon.
Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israel carried out air strikes and shelling on several areas of the country’s south.
The Israeli military said it identified “projectiles” crossing from Lebanon, intercepting some of them, and also said “a number of UAVs (drones) were identified crossing from Lebanese territory”.
It said the air force struck “Hezbollah military infrastructure and a launcher” in the Qabrikha area, while its artillery struck several other areas of south Lebanon.
The cross-border violence has killed some 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
A statement from Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said that “due to the (Israeli) aggression”, 27 emergency personnel and health workers have been killed and 94 others wounded since October.
Two hospitals and 21 health centres have been “targeted” while 32 fire or ambulance vehicles have been “put out of service or partially damaged”, the statement said, urging an end to the “repeated and deliberate targeting of health workers and civilians”.