On Saturday, Israel carried out an airstrike against a civil defense fire truck in the southern Lebanese town of Froun. The attack killed three paramedics and wounded two other members of the truck crew. The crew was in the process of putting out fires in the area from previous Israeli attacks.
The attack was reportedly the second time in 12 hours that Israeli forces had attacked an ambulance crew. The Amal Movement, a Shi’ite political party in Lebanon, said that two of the slain were members of their organization.
Though the Israeli Defense Forces often don’t comment at all on attacks that end up killing civilians in neighboring countries, they did issue a statement on the Saturday attack, insisting they had “eliminated terrorists” from the Amal Movement.
There is no indication that the slain were anything but paramedics. Israel has targeted rescue workers in southern Lebanon multiple times since October, and they have been launching increasing attacks against targets in the area in recent months.
Hezbollah responded to the attack on the rescue workers by firing an estimated 50 rockets at the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona. There were no casualties reported in the strikes.
The Lebanese Health Ministry issued a statement complaining that Israel had been carrying out a “blatant attacks that had targeted a team from an official body of the Lebanese state.”
