5 medics among 10 killed in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon

BEIRUT

At least 10 people, including five medics, were killed and over a dozen injured in Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon late Wednesday.

The Lebanese Civil Defense said in a statement that five of its workers were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Civil Defense center in Derdghaya town of the Tyre district in the southern governorate.

It said the victims were on duty at the center and ready to respond to emergency calls.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's Ministry of Health reported that an Israeli airstrike on the town of Wardaniyeh in the same district killed five people and injured 12 others, but did not specify the severity of their injuries.

The ministry added that “remains of other victims are being identified through DNA testing.”

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,323 people, injuring nearly 3,700 others, and displacing more than 1.2 million people.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in yearlong cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 42,000 people, mostly women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

At least 2,141 people have since been killed and 10,099 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East region was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, Tel Aviv expanded the conflict by launching on Oct. 1 a ground invasion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio