BEIRUT: Lebanese data scientist and volunteer rescue worker Bachir Nakhal started a crowdfunding effort to buy new ambulances for south Lebanon months ago, fearing Israel’s war in Gaza could spread to his country.

But weeks into Israel’s war with Hezbollah, his worst fears came true when an ambulance he had helped purchase was bombed.

“We were trying to get the number of ambulances up to the bare minimum level,” he told AFP.

“We weren’t expecting the ambulances ... to get directly targeted or bombed,” said Nakhal, who says the vehicle he had raised money for was destroyed in an Israeli strike just four days after the volunteers had received it.

The October 9 strike, which took place in the southern village of Derdghaiya, killed five rescue workers, including the head of the local team and his son, according to the civil defense.

The incident was among what the United Nations says is a growing number of attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, with paramedics, first responders and ambulances increasingly in the firing line.

“More attacks continue to be reported where ambulances and relief centers are targeted or hit in Lebanon,” UN humanitarian agency OCHA said after the Derdghaiya strike.

The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, though it has yet to produce any evidence.

“Necessary measures will be taken against any vehicle transporting gunmen, regardless of its type,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote in Arabic on social media platform X.

Nakhal said a second crowdfunded ambulance, dispatched to the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Monday, was barely on the road for a day when it had a close call with heavy strikes.

Israel had earlier in the war issued an evacuation warning for Nabatiyeh, where Hezbollah and its ally Amal hold sway.