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 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.