Rescue workers hit in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah Beirut stronghold

An Israeli strike hit Hezbollah-linked rescue workers in Beirut's southern suburbs, wounding three, a Lebanese security source told Reuters on Friday.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that at least 28 on-duty medics have been killed in the past 24 hours in Lebanon, where Israel has launched airstrikes and sent troops to fight Hezbollah in an escalating conflict.

"Many (other) health workers are not reporting to duty and fled the areas where they work due to bombardments," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press briefing, calling for stronger protections for health workers.

"This is severely limiting the provision of mass trauma management and continuity of health services," he said.

WHO's representative in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar told a briefing that all of the healthcare workers killed in the past day had been on duty, helping with the wounded.