6 Health Workers Killed in Israeli Strikes in South Lebanon

A damaged vehicle and the rubble from overnight's Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Abbassiyeh are pictured on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
A damaged vehicle and the rubble from overnight's Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Abbassiyeh are pictured on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
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6 Health Workers Killed in Israeli Strikes in South Lebanon

A damaged vehicle and the rubble from overnight's Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Abbassiyeh are pictured on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)
A damaged vehicle and the rubble from overnight's Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Abbassiyeh are pictured on October 31, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by KAWNAT HAJU / AFP)

Six Lebanese health workers were killed and four wounded in Israeli strikes across south Lebanon on Thursday, the health ministry said in a statement.

The strikes killed five paramedics with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee and one with the Amal-linked Risala Scouts, the ministry said.

The total number of health workers killed by Israel since October 2023 rose to 178 and 279 wounded, the ministry added.

Israeli attacks killed 45 people in Lebanon in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 2,865 since October 2023, the ministry said in a separate statement. 



Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel Avoids Direct Answers on West Bank Annexation

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Trump’s Nominee for Ambassador to Israel Avoids Direct Answers on West Bank Annexation

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, US President Donald Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Israel, testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

Mike Huckabee, facing a US Senate hearing for his confirmation as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel, is facing close questioning from Democrats on his views on the potential for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, but he avoided giving direct answers.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, asked Huckabee whether he thought it would be wrong for a Jewish settler to push a Palestinian family off land they own in the West Bank.

Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian, stood by past statements that Israel has a “Biblical mandate” to the land. He also responded by saying he believed in the “law being followed” and “clarity,” but also that “purchasing the land” would be a “legitimate transaction.”

Huckabee also said that any Palestinians living in an annexed West Bank would have “security” and “opportunity,” but wouldn’t answer Van Hollen’s questions about whether they would have the same legal and political rights as Jewish people.

Four pro-Palestinian demonstrators interrupted the hearing in the Senate to decry Huckabee’s ardent support for Israel.

One blew a shofar, a ram’s horn used for Jewish religious purposes, and another shouted, “I am a proud American Jew!” then “Let Palestinians live!”

Police quickly grabbed the protesters, but their shouts could still be momentarily heard in the Senate hallway.

Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and one-time Republican presidential hopeful, has taken stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that sharply contradict longstanding US policy in the region.

He has spoken favorably in the past about Israel’s right to annex the occupied West Bank and has long been opposed to the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.

In an interview last year, he went even further, saying that he doesn’t even believe in referring to the Arab descendants of people who lived in British-controlled Palestine as “Palestinians.”