Three Lebanese paramedics have been killed and two others wounded, one critically, in an Israeli attack while they were extinguishing fires in the southern town of Faroun, Reuters quoted Lebanon’s health ministry as saying.

“Israeli forces targeted a team from the Lebanese Civil Defence as they responded to fires sparked by recent Israeli airstrikes,” a ministry statement said, specifying that the strike hit a fire truck.

It condemned the attack as a “blatant strike” on an official Lebanese state apparatus, marking the second such attack on an emergency team in less than 12 hours.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

The intensity of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel has ratcheted up steadily, displacing tens of thousands of people on either side of the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.