CAIRO (Reuters) – Three Lebanese paramedics were killed and two others wounded, one seriously, in an Israeli strike while they were extinguishing fires in the southern town of Faroun, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Saturday.
“Israeli forces attacked a Lebanese Civil Defense team as they responded to fires caused by recent Israeli airstrikes,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the attack hit a fire truck.
He condemned the attack as a “blatant attack” against an official Lebanese state apparatus, the second such attack against emergency equipment in less than 12 hours.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the report.
It had earlier said it had carried out a series of attacks on Hezbollah rocket launchers and infrastructure in several locations in southern Lebanon, after the group fired rockets towards northern Israel.
Hezbollah issued a statement saying it launched a “missile squadron” in response to Faroun’s attack, which targeted an Israeli military headquarters, causing casualties.
The intensity of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has steadily increased, displacing tens of thousands of people on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border.