Cross-border attacks between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces in Lebanon escalated, both sides said on Sunday, a day after Lebanon’s health ministry reported three rescue workers had been killed in an Israeli attack.
The Iran-backed Lebanese movement, in support of ally Hamas, has exchanged almost daily gunfire with Israeli forces since the Palestinian group launched an attack on Israel on October 7, sparking war in the Gaza Strip, and has escalated repeatedly during 11 months of cross-border violence.
Hezbollah said it fired a volley of flak rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona early Sunday “in response to enemy attacks… and in particular to the attack” that killed emergency workers in the Lebanese village of Fraoun.
On Saturday, Lebanon’s health ministry said three emergency responders were killed and two others injured in the Israeli attack on Fraun, one of them in critical condition.
The ministry said the target of the attack was “Lebanese civil defense forces extinguishing fires caused by recent Israeli attacks”, while the Israeli military said it had “eliminated terrorists” of the Hezbollah-affiliated Amal movement in Fraun.
Lebanon’s civil protection agency said three of its employees were killed “in an Israeli attack that targeted a fire vehicle after it had finished a firefighting operation.”
Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying in a statement that “this new aggression against Lebanon is a gross violation of international law… and humanitarian values”.
Also on Sunday, Hezbollah said its fighters had also fired rockets at the Israeli community of Shamir, near Kiryat Shmona.
Hezbollah typically says it targets military sites in northern Israel, while Israel says it targets Hezbollah infrastructure and fighters in southern and eastern Lebanon.
The Israeli military announced on Sunday morning that it had carried out several air strikes on “Hezbollah military formations” and destroyed missiles fired from Lebanon during the night.
A military statement in Fraun on Saturday said Israeli forces had attacked and eliminated Amal members who were “operating within the Hezbollah military structure.”
Hezbollah’s ally, the Amal Movement, said two of its members were also killed in Saturday’s attack. It said they died “while performing their humanitarian and national duty while defending Lebanon and the south.”
The Lebanese Health Ministry statement condemned “the blatant Israeli attack targeting a team of an official body of the Lebanese State.”
It said it was “the second attack of its kind on an emergency team in less than 12 hours.”
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said two emergency workers from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were injured when they were “deliberately targeted by the Israeli enemy” as they were on their way to put out a fire in Qabrikha, a city in southern Lebanon, causing their vehicle to veer off course.
Several militant groups operate health centers and emergency response operations in south Lebanon.
Hezbollah on Saturday announced a series of attacks on Israeli troops and targets near the border, including with Katyusha rockets and “explosive-laden drones”, some of them in response to “Israeli enemy attacks” on south Lebanon.
Cross-border violence has killed about 614 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters, as well as 138 civilians, according to an AFP count.
On the Israeli side, which includes the Golan Heights, officials have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firas Abiad said in a statement that 27 emergency workers and health staff had been killed and 94 others injured since October “due to the (Israeli) aggression”.
Two hospitals and 21 health centres had been “targeted”, while 32 fire or ambulance vehicles had been “put out of service or partially damaged”, the statement said, urging an end to the “repeated and deliberate targeting of health workers and civilians”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
