The PM of Lebanon denounces Israel’s “war crimes” after three rescue workers are killed in an airstrike.

Three of the five victims murdered in a double Israeli strike in southern Lebanon were civil defense emergency personnel, and the prime minister of Lebanon has accused Israel of committing a “heinous crime” by killing them.

According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, two consecutive Israeli strikes on a building in the town of Majdal Zoun on Tuesday resulted in the deaths of five persons, including three rescue workers who went to assist those hurt in the original Israeli attack.

“Targeting elements of the Civil Defence in Majdal Zoun, and their killing while carrying out their humanitarian duty, constitutes a new and described war crime perpetrated by Israel,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a post on social media.

“It represents a flagrant violation of the principles and rules of international humanitarian law,” Salam said.

“The government will spare no effort to condemn this heinous crime in international forums and to mobilise all efforts to compel Israel to cease its ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement,” he said.

According to a Lebanese Civil Defense spokesperson who spoke to the Reuters news agency, the three rescuers were first buried beneath debris by the second Israeli strike and were subsequently verified to have perished in the assault. 

The rescue workers and two civilian bulldozers were the targets of the second Israeli strike, according to the Lebanese army, which also reported that two of its soldiers were injured.
Media reports state that a Lebanese military patrol escorting civil defense workers on the rescue mission at the scene of the initial Israeli attack was ambushed by Israeli forces.

Israeli forces continue to conduct airstrikes that kill and injure people every day, mostly in the south and east of the nation, despite a truce between Israel and Lebanon mediated by the United States.

Hezbollah has launched drones and fired rockets into Israel and occupied southern Lebanon in retaliation for the Israeli truce violations. Joseph Aoun, the president of Lebanon, also released a statement regarding the three civil defense personnel’s deaths, claiming that they were just the most recent in a “series of attacks that targeted relief and first aid workers.”

The killings “indicate that Israel continues to violate international laws and conventions that protect civilians, paramedics, Civil Defence personnel, the Red Cross, and workers in the fields of rescue, first aid, and medicine,” Aoun said.

Earlier this month, Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the international silence around Israel’s war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza had “only emboldened the Israeli military’s atrocities”.

“Israel’s allies, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other European Union states, should suspend all arms sales, arms transit, and military assistance to Israel and impose targeted sanctions on officials credibly implicated in ongoing grave crimes,” Kaiss said.

“Civilians are paying the price of the international community’s silence and unwillingness to hold Israeli officials to account.”

According to the Health Ministry, at least eight individuals were murdered in attacks around Lebanon on Tuesday. Since March 2, Israeli attacks on the nation have resulted in 2,534 fatalities and 7,863 injuries.