Two successive Israeli strikes on a building in the town of Majdal Zoun on Tuesday killed five people, including three rescue workers who went to help those injured in the initial Israeli attack on the targeted building, Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said.
“Targeting elements of the Civil Defense 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, Al Jazeera reported.
“The government will spare no effort to condemn this heinous crime in international forums and to mobilize all efforts to compel Israel to cease its ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Lebanese Civil Defense told the Reuters news agency that the three rescuers were initially trapped under rubble by the second Israeli strike and were later confirmed to have died in the attack.
The Lebanese army said that two of its troops were also wounded in the second Israeli strike that targeted its forces, the rescue workers and two civilian bulldozers.
According to media reports, Israeli forces attacked a Lebanese military patrol, which was escorting the civil defense workers on the rescue mission at the site of the initial Israeli attack.
Despite a US-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli forces continue to carry out air strikes that kill and injure people on a daily basis, primarily in the south and east of the country.