Israeli strikes in Lebanon killed 10 people, including six paramedics and a child, in the space of 24 hours, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Friday, placing further strain on a US-brokered ceasefire. The ministry condemned the attacks as violations of international law.
Further airstrikes were reported on Friday night into Saturday. An AFP correspondent in the southern city of Tyre reported hearing two blasts as one building on the outskirts was struck, then another inside the city, sending plumes of smoke into the air. Earlier, officials worked to evacuate people from the neighbourhood, using loudspeakers urging them to leave.
Israel’s military had issued evacuation warnings for two areas of Tyre and the village of Burj Rahal to the north-east, saying troops were acting against Hezbollah.
The state-run National News Agency said there were five Israeli airstrikes shortly before midnight in the mountainous Nabi Sreij area further north on the outskirts of Brital, which had been spared from attacks since the ceasefire with Hezbollah began.
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, the health ministry said an Israeli strike in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr in the coastal Tyre province killed a total of six people, including the two medics and a Syrian child.
At 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. The Al-Rissala Scouts Association is linked with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement.
At Hanaway and in Deir Qanoun En-Nahr, the Israeli 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 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 2 March, when Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired at Israel in the opening salvoes of a new war. The dead include 123 medics, 210 children and nearly 300 women, according to statistics from 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.