TYRE: Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area of Ras Al-Ain. Israel has intensified its attacks in south Lebanon despite an April 17 ceasefire that aimed to halt the fighting. —AFP
TYRE: Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area of Ras Al-Ain. Israel has intensified its attacks in south Lebanon despite an April 17 ceasefire that aimed to halt the fighting. —AFP

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s civil defence agency said two of its personnel were killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday while they were on duty in the country’s south.

The personnel were killed in “an Israeli airstrike that targeted them while they were carrying out a rescue mission” after a previous strike in the city of Nabatieh, a civil defence statement said.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference that Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed 380 people since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war began on April 17.

Since the ceasefire, “380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded,” Nassereddine said. A ministry official told AFP that the toll includes 39 women and 22 children.

The overall toll in Israeli strikes since the war erupted between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2 has reached 2,882 people including 279 women and 200 children, he added.

Under the terms of the truce released by Wash­ington, Israel reserves the right to act against “planned, imminent or ongoing attacks”.

In addition to carrying out ongoing airstrikes, Isr­a­eli troops have been operating behind a so-called “yellow line” that runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the border between the two countries.

Some 108 emergency and health workers are among the overall death toll while 249 others have been wounded and “16 hospitals have been damaged” since the start of the conflict, Nassereddine said.

“It’s a massacre… there are no armed men or fighters in these (ambulance) vehicles, just medical equipment and wounded, contrary to what Israel says,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2026

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