BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said on Monday an Israeli strike in south Lebanon overnight killed 10 firefighters.
“An Israeli strike overnight targeted a local firefighting center in Baraasheet where 10 civil defense members were present,” municipal official Reda Ashour said.
The health ministry reported the “killing of 10 firefighters” who were “in the building ready to go out on rescue missions,” adding efforts to remove the rubble were ongoing.
The latest report brings to 115 the number of rescuers killed in a year since the start of cross-border fire between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Monday vowed to keep up the fight against Israeli “aggression,” on the anniversary of its militant group ally Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese have paid a “heavy price” for the Iran-backed group’s decision to open a “support front” for Gaza on October 8, but “we are confident... in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression,” it said in a statement, calling Israel a “cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes.”
Additional troops
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in a south Lebanon border village on Monday, as the Israeli army said it had deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters “bombed... a gathering of Israeli forces in the Maroun Al-Ras park with a rocket salvo,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement, after announcing separately it had targeted several areas of northern Israel and military positions across the border.
The Israeli army on Monday said it had deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon — making it the third troop grouping at division strength to be used in the ground fight against Hezbollah.
“The soldiers of the 91st Division began localized and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon,” said a statement from the army.
