BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency personnel were killed on Saturday and two others wounded in an Israeli attack on a civil defense team putting out fires in south Lebanon.
“Israeli enemy targeting of a Lebanese civil defense 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 however that the toll was provisional.
The health ministry “condemns this blatant Israeli attack that targeted a team from an official body of the Lebanese state,” the 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.
The cross-border violence has killed at least 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 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.
On Saturday, Hezbollah announced a string of attacks on Israeli troops and positions near the border, including with Katyusha rockets, 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 had identified “projectiles” crossing from Lebanon, intercepting some of them.
It said it struck “Hezbollah military infrastructure and a launcher” in the Qabrikha area of southern Lebanon, as well as striking the Aita Al-Shaab and Kfarshuba areas.