Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, in Sour district, on May 31, 2024. (Photo provided by our correspondent in the region, Muntasser Abdallah)
SOUR — The Israeli army targeted an ambulance in an airstrike on southern Lebanon on Friday afternoon, killing one medic and wounding another. This is the first time an ambulance has been directly targeted since cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began on Oct. 8.
The ambulance belonged to the Islamic Health Committee, a Hezbollah-affiliated medical association which, alongside the Amal Movement's al-Risala Scouts, is the primary emergency service in the South, responding to the majority of Israeli strikes and often fighting the fires that break out as a result.
One of the organization's paramedics was killed in the strike on Naqoura, in Sour district, a spokesperson confirmed.
According to L'Orient Today's count, 20 medics have been killed in nearly eight months of war. L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South said 10 of those killed were members of the Islamic Health Organization, which has also had 14 of its ambulances damaged.
On Friday afternoon, shortly after the strike on the ambulance, the Israeli army also targeted another area in Naqoura, a security source said.
Hezbollah opened a "support front" against Israel in southern Lebanon in parallel with its ally Hamas in Gaza. The party's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been explicit in stating that Iran-aligned group, prominent in the "Axis of Resistance," would not allow Hamas to be destroyed and that a cease-fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border is contingent on a cease-fire in Gaza.
On Monday, an Israeli strike killed a motorcyclist on the road outside a hospital run by the Islamic Health Committee in Bint Jbeil, also in southern Lebanon. Two civilians were killed.
A report by Human RIghts Watch found that the March 27 Israeli strike on health center in Hebbarieh, southern Lebanon, was an "unlawful attack on civilians" and that it could be "investigated as an apparent war crime."
Seven medics were killed in the attack, which was carried out with a US-made Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance kit and an Israeli-made 500-pound general purpose bomb.
Reporting contributed by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, Muntasser Abdallah.
