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Lebanon decries 'systematic' attacks on civilians despite truce

Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference on Tuesday that since the ceasefire, "380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded". That toll includes 39 women and 22 children.

Nassereddine decried a "systematic, ongoing attack on civilians", and described the ceasefire as "fragile and ineffective".

Save the Children said in a statement that "more than four children have been killed or injured every day on average in Lebanon in the first 25 days" of the truce.

Its Lebanon country director Nora Ingdal said "attacks on civilians have not stopped -- it has simply continued under another name".

In addition to its ongoing air raids, Israel's troops are operating behind a "yellow line" that runs around 10 kilometers inside Lebanon and have issued evacuation warnings for dozens of villages in the south and east ahead of strikes, including on Tuesday.

The overall toll from Israeli attacks since the war erupted on March 2 has reached 2,882 people, including 279 women and 200 children, Nassereddine said.

Some 108 emergency and health workers were also among the dead, he noted, before the latest civil defense deaths.

"It's a massacre... there are no armed men or fighters in these (ambulance) vehicles, just paramedics, medical equipment and wounded," he added.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances and medical facilities for military purposes, an accusation the group denies.

Source: Agence France Presse


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