Hezbollah-affiliated rescuers say Israel strike on ambulance killed medic

Rescuers affiliated with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said a medic was killed and another wounded on Friday in an Israeli strike on one of their ambulances in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

“An Israeli drone strike targeted an ambulance… One rescuer was martyred and another wounded” in the border town of Naqura, the operations room of the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee said.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency also said “an enemy drone targeted a Health Committee ambulance in the town of Naqura,” reporting casualties.

Several militant groups in Lebanon operate health centers and emergency response operations.

On Monday, the NNA had said “an enemy drone” targeted “a motorcycle near the Salah Ghandour hospital in the town of Bint Jbeil” in the country’s south.

The director of the facility, which is also run by the Islamic Health Committee, said two civilians were killed in the strike.

In a statement, Lebanon’s health ministry condemned the “brutal Israeli strike” on the hospital, calling it a “war crime.”

At least 446 people have been killed in Lebanon in more than seven months of cross-border violence, mostly militants but also including 87 civilians.

Several Islamic Health Committee rescuers are among the dead.

Israel says 14 soldiers and 11 civilians have been killed on its side of the border.

In March, the United Nations said it was “deeply disturbed” by attacks on health care facilities in south Lebanon, after several strikes blamed on Israel killed 10 emergency rescue workers.