Strikes ambulance crews

Israel strikes ambulance crews multiple times, Lebanese authorities say, killing 4 medics

By Charbel Mallo, Ibrahim Dahman and Sana Noor Haq

The Israeli military launched three successive attacks on emergency crews handling a relief mission in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities, killing four paramedics and wounding several others.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.

Israel struck rescue teams “three consecutive times” in the town of Mayfadoun, southern Lebanon, on Wednesday, the Lebanese Public Ministry of Health said. At least three paramedics were killed and six others injured, the health ministry added.

That death toll rose to at least four paramedics killed, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on Thursday. The crew were “on a relief mission following a raid that targeted the town,” NNA said.

“While they were in the area, they were targeted by a drone strike, which led to the martyrdom of the four paramedics,” the news agency added.

One of the slain paramedics — Mahdi Abu Zaid — was injured in an initial Israeli strike before he returned to try and rescue others and was killed, according to a senior colleague.

“Despite his injury, he (Mahdi Abu Zaid) went and moved the car back, and he refused to leave any martyr or wounded person on the ground,” Mohamed Suleiman, a chief paramedic in Nabatieh, told Reuters.

“What Mahdi did embodies the kind of heroism offered by Nabatieh paramedics,” Suleiman added.

The UN’s human rights office (OHCHR) condemned the attack.

Death toll: Israeli bombing on Lebanon after the Iran-backed group Hezbollah fired projectiles into Israel on March 2 has flattened neigborhoods and displaced 1.2 million people. Israeli strikes have killed at least 2,196 people in Lebanon, including 172 children and 93 health workers, the Lebanese health ministry reported on Wednesday. In the last 24 hours alone, at least 29 people were killed in Lebanon, the ministry said.

CNN’s Dana Karni and Tamara Qiblawi contributed reporting.