Back-To-Back Israeli Strikes Kill 4 Lebanese Rescue Workers

TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — The Israeli army killed four Lebanese rescue workers and wounded six others in three consecutive targeted attacks on Wednesday, medics said, a stark example of the human cost of Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, a day after historic talks between the two countries in Washington.

Back-to-back Israeli strikes on the village of Mayfadoun, near the large southern town of Nabatiyeh, hit the first group of medics responding to a distress call from wounded civilians, the second group trying to help injured colleagues, and the third group rushing to aid the first two teams targeted.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the attacks beyond saying it was “investigating” what happened. He had previously accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group of using ambulances for militant activities, without providing any evidence.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Health condemned the attacks as a “clear violation” of international law.

Abou Haidar Hayya, an official of the Islamic Health Committee who participated in the rescue operation, said he feared that such direct targeting of medics would mean “there are no more red lines in this war.”

“Ambulances are protected under all international laws and conventions. It is forbidden to target them. And when these bans are lifted, we will have nothing left,” he said in a telephone interview from the health center in Nabitiyeh.

The ministry stated that at least 91 Lebanese healthcare workers have been killed by Israel since the Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, underlining the intensity of the ongoing strikes and the pressure on Lebanon’s healthcare system. The death toll from the war in Lebanon rose to 2,167 on Wednesday.

The group said Israel first shot a team from the Lebanese Islamic Health Committee, a major health care provider linked to Hezbollah’s political movement, killing two medics. The ministry reported that a second team from the committee went to the field and was shot in another Israeli attack that injured three healthcare workers.

Nabatieh Emergency Services and the Islamic Risala Scout Association, a paramedic group affiliated with Hezbollah-allied Amal movement, made a third rescue attempt. They were hit in an attack that left two more paramedics dead.

The Islamic Health Committee said most of the injured medics were in fair condition, except for one doctor who was hit by shrapnel in the chest and was in serious condition.

Footage taken by Nabatiyeh Emergency Services and shared with The Associated Press showed the second medical team, wearing their uniforms and getting into clearly marked emergency vehicles, trying to save their bloodied colleagues from wrecked ambulances that had turned to the side of the road.

Rescue workers are seen helping two injured colleagues on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance when an Israeli attack crashes into the vehicle, blowing out its windows and shattering glass everywhere. The camera shakes and the doctor treating his colleagues screams in pain. The video then shows a third team coming to help the others before they are attacked.

Hayya, of the Islamic Health Committee, said he had no regrets about sending team after team into the line of fire.

“We went in three times because we refused to leave our paramedics behind, even if it cost us all our lives,” he said.

He promised that the Islamic Health Committee and other medics would continue to fulfill their duties in southern Lebanon despite increasingly impossible conditions.

Israeli forces said they hit more than 200 Hezbollah targets in Southern Lebanon in the last 24 hours. Hezbollah claimed that there were rocket attacks on military targets in northern Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video speech late Wednesday that he had ordered the military to expand the so-called “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon eastward. He said Israel was continuing negotiations with the Lebanese government alongside its military campaign against Hezbollah in the hope of disarming the militant group and achieving a “sustainable peace” with its northern neighbor.

These negotiations in Lebanon Reaction from Hezbollah and its supporters. Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, which is closely allied with Hezbollah, declared the government a “regime of shame” in a front-page report on talks in Washington on Tuesday.

Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah condemned Lebanese officials for what he called the “shameful image” of direct negotiations with Israel at a time when Israel was “killing the Lebanese people and committing massacres.”

He called on the government, which has long failed to disarm Hezbollah, to hold a popular referendum on the future of Hezbollah’s arsenal rather than deciding Hezbollah’s fate in negotiations with Israel.

“We are ready for a referendum on these elections,” Fadlallah told reporters, saying he expected the results of such a vote to show that the majority of the Lebanese people support Hezbollah’s militant activities.

On the streets of Beirut, Lebanese people were divided. Some agreed with Hezbollah that Israel could only be stopped by military force. Others welcomed the talks in Washington as a possible step towards ending the war.

“The negotiations are more in our interest than Israel’s, because we are the ones whose country is destroyed, we are the ones who suffer losses,” said Mohamed Saad, who lives in Beirut.

The Israeli military has issued an evacuation warning for large areas of southern Lebanon. But tens of thousands of people stayed Either because they don’t want to leave their homes or because they have nowhere to go.

Many displaced families see the coastal city of Tire as their last refuge from the heaviest fighting in southern Lebanon near the border.

But increasingly, residents say nowhere is safe. In the normally bustling seaside town, war can be seen in shattered buildings, piles of rubble and debris-covered streets.

DeBre reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Fadi Tawil contributed to this report