Live updates: Follow the latest news on US-Iran war
Israeli forces have struck the only operational hospital in southern Lebanon, as Lebanese authorities accuse Israel of targeting the country's healthcare sector.
Staff at the Tibnin Governmental Hospital were wounded in the attack on Wednesday night, which caused significant damage to the emergency department, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Lebanon said.
The hospital, which has been attacked twice in recent days, is the only operational health facility in the south of the country, said the Red Cross.
The Israeli army also struck first responders and their vehicles near the hospital, according to Firass Abiad, Lebanon's former minister of health.
Israel's attacks come amid renewed fighting with the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that began on March 2.
At least 91 health workers have been killed in Israeli strikes since then, according to government figures. Of those, 32 were killed in less than two weeks, nearly half of them in one day.
“Last night, Tibnin Governmental Hospital was targeted again,” Dr Abiad wrote on X on Thursday. “The only operational hospital in the most southern regions, where the Israeli attacks are relentless.”
He flagged the first attack on the hospital on April 14, saying it was the only one of five in the southern border region that was still operating.
Dr Abiad was the health minister in 2024 when Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon in the final two months of its previous war with Hezbollah. He told The National at the time that there was “clear evidence” Israel was targeting healthcare workers.
Israel killed at least 163 medical staff in Lebanon during the 2023-2024 conflict, which ended with a ceasefire in late November. Human Rights Watch said the repeated attacks on medical workers and healthcare facilities during that conflict might amount to war crimes.
Israel is once again being accused of systematically targeting Lebanon's health sector, in line with its Gaza playbook.
It has intensified attacks on civilian infrastructure and residential areas across the country. The Israeli army has claimed, without providing evidence, that Hezbollah fighters were using ambulances and medical centres for military purposes.
At least three medics were killed and six others were wounded in a “triple-tap” Israeli strike in the southern town of Mayfadoun on Wednesday, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. It said the Israeli army attacked paramedics “three consecutive times” while they were at work.
The first attack was on an ambulance crew responding to an Israeli strike on the southern town in Nabatieh district, killing one medic, the ministry said.
A second and third ambulance were struck after arriving at the scene to rescue their colleagues, killing another two medics and injuring six others. One medic is still missing, it added.
The ministry described the attack as a “heinous crime, which reflects the Israeli enemy's insistence on preventing paramedics from carrying out their tasks”.
