11 health workers killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting medical facilities in Lebanon
Member of Lebanese Civil Defense also killed in separate attack, according to reports
ANKARA
At least 11 medical personnel were killed on Saturday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting health facilities in the villages of Taybeh and Deir Seryan in the Marjeyoun district of southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
The agency reported that 10 others were injured in the strikes that hit facilities operated by the Islamic Health Authority.
In a separate incident, the Lebanese Civil Defense reported the death of one of its members and critical injuries to another during Israeli airstrikes that struck the southern suburbs of Beirut late Friday night.
Israel has pounded Lebanon since early Monday with airstrikes that have killed more than 700 victims and injured nearly 2,200, according to figures released by the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The ministry also said that the death toll in Lebanon since last October is 1,540, in addition to the more than 77,000 displaced from the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Earlier in a statement on Saturday, the Israeli army claimed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “liquidated” during an operation targeting the central command of Hezbollah located beneath a residential building in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel's onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 41,600 victims, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7.
The international community has warned against the strikes on Lebanon, as they raise the specter of turning the Gaza conflict into a regional war.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara