ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Israel has continued intense attacks in Southern Lebanon despite an extension of the ceasefire between the two countries. On Friday, airstrikes killed 10 people, including six paramedics and a Syrian toddler, according to Lebanese officials. One of the airstrikes was captured on video. NPR's Jane Arraf and Jawad Rizkallah have more. As a warning, you will hear the sound of an explosion in this report.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Allahu akbar.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: The video starts with a distraught voice saying, "three Syrians were targeted under our house."
(SOUNDBITE OF SIREN WAILING)
ARRAF: Filmed from a window, the video shows someone on the ground, a medic wearing a first responder vest kneeling next to him.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "Oh, God. Oh, God, it's devastating," says the woman filming. You can see an ambulance in the frame.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar.
ARRAF: And then, almost exactly 1 minute after the video starts with medics gathered around the wounded, another explosion.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Allahu akbar (non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: The woman shouts in disbelief. The image shakes. When the smoke clears, you can see more bodies. The first responder who had been administering CPR crumples to the ground.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: "They hit the medics. Oh God, they're dead," she says, You can hear the Israeli drones.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Allahu akbar.
ARRAF: The video appears to show a double tap, an Israeli practice widely used in Gaza of hitting first responders rushing to treat wounded from an initial strike. Israel did not respond to NPR questions about the attack, neither about the killing of the three first responders nor about who they were initially targeting.
The earlier drone strike hit a Syrian on a motorcycle with his wife and toddler daughter. Relatives said he was a farm laborer. He and the little girl and his brother, who was on another motorcycle, were killed, along with a barber who rushed to help. The girl's mother was seriously injured.
(CROSSTALK)
ARRAF: On Saturday in the southern city of Tyre, mourners gathered for the medics' funeral.
(CROSSTALK)
ARRAF: Lebanon says Israeli attacks have now killed more than 120 medical personnel and first responders. Two medics were also injured in Friday's attack, including Ali Weskhan, who spoke to NPR from a hospital in Tyre.
ALI WESKHAN: (Through interpreter) The bomb dropped between us and them. We were inside the ambulance, and they were on the ground, the civil defense guys.
ARRAF: The Geneva Conventions, adopted universally in 1949, say unless they're active combatants, medical personnel are always protected, Israel disagrees. NPR spoke with the woman who took the video. Some people called her a hero. Others called her a spy. She asked NPR not to use her name for fear of retaliation. She has since left the village. Jane Arraf, NPR News, Beirut.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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