Israel strikes Red Cross paramedics on rescue mission in South Lebanon

The Lebanese Red Cross said its paramedics were hit by a strike on Sunday while attending the site of an earlier attack in the south, leaving them injured.

"Following the air strike on a house in Sirbin... Lebanese Red Cross ambulance teams were dispatched to the scene in coordination with" UN peacekeepers, the Red Cross said in a statement.

"As the team was searching for casualties to rescue, the house was hit for a second time resulting in concussions to the volunteers and damage to the two ambulances," it said, adding the paramedics had sustained light injuries.

Jagan Chapagain, who heads the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called for rescuers to be protected.

"We have said it before and today we say it again: the Red Cross emblem must be respected under International Humanitarian Law," he said in a statement shared on X.

Nearly a year of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza war escalated into all-out conflict on September 23.

Since then, dozens of rescuers have been killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon, officials have said.