BEIRUT, March 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Three paramedics affiliated with Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli strike on south Lebanon Monday, the group said, amid escalating cross-border hostilities in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

   Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have been exchanging near-daily fire since the day after the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October, raising fears all-out conflict could spread across the region.

   The Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee said three volunteers died "due to a direct Zionist attack on an emergency centre" in south Lebanon's Adaysseh.

   The deaths came hours after Israeli medics said a missile strike on northern Israel killed a foreign worker and wounded seven others.

   Lebanon's health ministry condemned the Israeli raid "in the strongest terms" and called attacks on medical personnel "unacceptable", in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency.
 
   Hezbollah on Monday claimed several attacks on Israeli military positions, while local media reported Israeli attacks on a number of locations in south Lebanon.

   The Israeli military said "numerous launches were identified crossing from Lebanon", adding that it "struck the sources of the launches", while "fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah military compounds in southern Lebanon".

   Last month, two Islamic Health Committee paramedics and a Hezbollah fighter were killed in an Israeli strike on one of the organisation's centres in south Lebanon's Blida, the group and a security source said at the time.

   The Israeli army said it had struck a Hezbollah "military compound" in the village.

   And in January, the Iran-backed group said an Israeli strike killed two Islamic Health Committee medics in the town of Hanin.

   The Israeli army said it had struck Hezbollah targets, as well as "a number of areas in Lebanese territory".

   The fighting has killed at least 299 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including 49 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

   In Israel, at least 10 soldiers and seven civilians have been killed.