Hezbollah and Lebanon’s Shi’ite Amal Movement have been using ambulances in Southern Lebanon to transport terrorists and weapons, the Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday.
“Hezbollah uses ambulances in southern Lebanon to carry out terrorist activities and uses medical organizations as a cover for them,” Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the military’s Arabic spokesperson said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
According to Adraee, the ambulances belong to the Islamic Health Organization, a Lebanese Shi’ite healthcare organization aligned with Hezbollah.
“After analyzing the activity pattern of the ambulance, it was noted that it behaves abnormally between Hezbollah sites after being bombed, even in cases where there is no need to transport the injured, as well as after it was attacked for a long period,” Adraee tweeted.
“According to estimates, ambulances are used by Hezbollah and Amal to transport members between locations in areas surveyed by IDF forces, as well as to transport combat means or equipment for terrorist activities,” he added.
Israel has confirmed carrying out more than 1,000 airstrikes on terror facilities in Southern Lebanon belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah since October 7.
Hezbollah leaders have suggested that they will continue to fire rockets to prevent thousands of residents of northern Israel from returning to their homes.
According to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the terror group is forbidden from operating in Southern Lebanon south of the Litani River. Israeli officials have been critical of UNIFIL peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of rockets at Israel since October 7.
The Blue Line demarcating the 120 km-long border was created in 2000 by UN cartographers to verify Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, which the UN Security Council later certified as complete. The border runs from Rosh HaNikra on the Mediterranean coast to Mount Dov, where the Israeli-Lebanese border converges with Syria.
Hezbollah says it does not recognize the Blue Line and disputes numerous points along the border.
Among those points is a strip of land on Mount Dov itself, which Israel captured from Syria. Hezbollah claims the area called Shebaa Farms belongs to Lebanon. Syria has not commented on the matter.
