Seven Lebanese paramedics killed in Israeli attack on ambulance station

BEIRUT, Lebanon

An Israeli airstrike on a paramedics’ center linked to a Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven workers and triggered a retaliatory rocket attack on northern Israel that left one person dead on Wednesday.

The strike on the village of Hebbariyeh, in the Arqoub area of Hasbaya district, came amid heavy bombardment along the border from both the Israeli military and Hezbollah.

As of March 19, Lebanon had lodged 22 complaints against Israel with the UN Security Council since the start of the attacks on its territory. These document “Israel’s violations of Security Council Resolution 1701” and call on Security Council members to “condemn these attacks, curb Israel’s violations of Lebanese sovereignty and prevent the outbreak of a large-scale regional war,” the Foreign Ministry said.

The seven paramedics worked for the Lebanese Succor Association. All were aged under 30 and several were relatives. They were identified as: Abdallah Atoui, Mohammed Al-Farouk Atoui, Bara’ Abu Kais, Abderrahmane Shaar, Hussein Shaar, Ahmed Shaar and Mohammed Hammoud.

Several other people were injured in the strike, which leveled the center in which the medics were working. The attack was met with widespread condemnation by politicians and the public.

The Israeli Army said it “targeted a military building affiliated with the Islamic Group in Habbariyeh, targeting an armed individual who had a role in planning attacks against Israeli territory and was associated with the Islamic medical group. The target was eliminated along with other armed individuals in the building.”

The Islamic Group, however, denied any connection to the center. Its media office said: “The Lebanese Succor Association center targeted by the Israeli airstrike is its own entity and is not affiliated with the Islamic Group.”

Under the wing of Hezbollah, the group has engaged in military operations against Israel on the southern Lebanese front since Oct. 8.

Hezbollah said that at 8 a.m. it retaliated to the Israeli strike by “bombing the Kiryat Shmona settlement and the 769th Brigade Command in the Kiryat Shmona barracks with dozens of rockets.”

Israeli news sites reported that more than 30 rockets were launched from southern Lebanon at locations in Galilee. A 38-year-old worker was killed and several others injured when a factory in Upper Galilee was hit.

Hezbollah said they also conducted a successful artillery strike on Israeli military deployments near the Shtola settlement and Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in the occupied Kfar Shuba hills, attacked an infantry force located within Ramim forest and hit spy equipment at the Miskav Am camp using “sniper weapons.”

The fighting on Wednesday came after Israeli drones killed two Hezbollah members in a strike on the Hermel region in the Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, the furthest incursion to date from Lebanon’s southern border.

Qasim Hashem, a politician from Lebanon’s Development and Liberation bloc, told Arab News: “What the Zionist enemy committed is a continuation of a criminal path that extends from Palestine to Lebanon.

“Today, Habbariyeh and Arqoub are paying in blood for confronting the Zionist project that began 75 years ago. Arqoub is at the forefront of the confrontation due to factors of history, geography, identity and belonging.”

Agriculture Minister Abbas Al-Hajj Hassan denounced the killing of “the ambulance men who were in their station to ensure the rescue of our people from the dangers of an enemy who only understands the language of murder and bloodshed.”

Environment Minister Nasser Yassin said: “The Hebbariyeh massacre is blatant evidence of Israel’s criminality and its failure to adhere to international humanitarian law, which grants immunity and protection to health and emergency care facilities.”

Wael Abu Faour, from the Democratic Gathering bloc, said: “The crime shows the enemy’s criminal behavior, resembling what is happening in Gaza and all of Palestine and their belief that they are above the law.”

Politician Bilal Abdullah said the killings were “the Zionist response to the Security Council’s ceasefire resolution in the Gaza Strip.”

Fellow member of parliament Ali Asseiran said: “Israel is repeating its dark history, and our state should file a complaint against Israel at the Security Council to condemn them for the terrible massacre they committed.”

The Progressive Socialist Party said: “Israeli madness has reached the point of bombing a health center and killing volunteers for humanitarian work.”

The Iranian Embassy in Lebanon, in its first comments on the Israeli attacks, said: “The occupation’s targeting of the medical center in Hebbariyeh is part of its aggressive and brutal policy.”