BEIRUT, May 22 (Reuters) – 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.
According to the ministry, 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 killed two medics from the Al-Rissala Scouts Association in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr, the ministry said.
On the incident in Hanaway, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites where militants with the group were present. In Deir Qanoun En-Nahr, the military said, soldiers identified and struck two Hezbollah militants riding motorcycles in the area.
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”. It said it took steps to mitigate potential civilian harm in part by ordering the population in both areas to flee.
The Lebanese health ministry distributed a video that it said was in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr, showing two men in yellow vests on the side of a road tending to someone. When an ambulance approaches the two men, a flash is seen and a loud boom goes off. The same men are then seen lying on the floor.
Reuters was able to confirm the location of the video as the western edge of Deir Qanoun En-Nahr from the buildings, trees and road layout which matched archive imagery of the area.
The health ministry said that in total, six people were killed in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr, 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 Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired at Israel in the opening salvos of a new war.
The dead include 123 medics, as well as more than 210 children and nearly 300 women, according to statistics shared by the health ministry on Friday.
International humanitarian law affords protection to frontline responders, healthcare workers and civilian infrastructure, including healthcare centres.
Several hospitals in southern Lebanon have been damaged or entirely put out of service by Israeli strikes, according to the World Health Organization.
On Thursday, an Israeli strike near the Tebnine Hospital in southern Lebanon damaged all three floors of the building, including the emergency room, intensive care unit, surgical ward and ambulances parked outside, according to the health ministry.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Catherine Cartier in Beirut, Tansy Liu and Eleanor Whalley in London; Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Editing by Chiara Rodriquez and Cynthia Osterman)
Comments