Israel killed 12 medical workers in a strike on a medical centre in south Lebanon on Friday night, bringing the toll of healthcare staff killed in the country by Israel to 31 over the past 12 days.

A primary healthcare facility in the town of Burj Qalaouiyah was hit by an Israeli strike late on Friday, setting it ablaze and causing the structure to collapse on top of the staff inside. The strike killed doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty, according to the Lebanese ministry of health, which said it “violated all international humanitarian laws” in a statement.

Human rights groups have said that any attacks on medical workers are a war crime, regardless of their political affiliation.

Commenting on the deaths of the 12 medical workers and two paramedics killed earlier in the day in an attack on a health facility in Al Sowana, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “The killings in the last 24 hours of 14 health workers in southern Lebanon mark a tragic development in the escalating Middle East crisis.”

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