Lebanon’s health minister said that Israeli strikes killed more than 160 rescuers and health workers in a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, calling it a “war crime”.

The total number of rescuers and “health sector workers killed has so far has reached 163, with 272 others wounded,” Firass Abiad told reporters during a press conference detailing “damage caused by Israeli attacks on the health sector in Lebanon”.

He said the attacks were “direct and intentional”, and “a war crime”.

Authorities, he said, were unable to retrieve the bodies of eight rescuers killed in Israeli attacks on their three ambulances, near border villages where intense fighting has erupted following Israeli ground incursions.

“The Israeli enemy has been refusing to even allow us to retrieve the bodies… for the past two weeks,” Abiad said.

Six firefighters were still buried under the rubble in a another south Lebanon location, he said. Israel has targeted 158 ambulances, 57 fire trucks, and 15 rescue vehicles, Abiad added.