BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli strike on a health center in southern Lebanon instantly killed 12 medical workers, seriously wounded one and left four missing under the rubble for hours.

The March 13 strike in the village of Burj Qalaouiyah, one of the single deadliest strikes in Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on March 2, targeted a center run by Hezbollah’s health arm, the Islamic Health Society, which has so far lost 24 members over the past two weeks.

Since the latest war began, Israel’s military has not only been targeting the group’s military assets but also its civilian institutions in an apparent attempt to weaken the Iran-backed group further and try to push its supporters away from it.

Hezbollah is a political party as well as an armed group, and its health and social service institutions have helped strengthen its base of support over the years.

In addition to health centers, Israel has destroyed more than a dozen branches of Hezbollah’s financial arm, al-Qard al-Hasan. Other strikes heavily damaged Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV headquarters and its Al-Nour radio stations.

The strikes also have targeted the group’s Amana gas stations and discount shops known as Sajjad, where low-income people can buy highly subsidized products.

On Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed Mohammed Sherri, the head of political programs at Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, along with his wife.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of using health facilities for military purposes and has said al-Qard al-Hasan — officially a charitable organization that provides interest-free loans — finances the group’s military activities. Lebanon’s Health Ministry denies the Israeli claims about Hezbollah’s health facilities being used for military purposes.

“This is a different war that will not end with a ceasefire,” said Hilal Khashan, a political scientist at American University of Beirut. “This war will not end before Israel achieves its full objective – that is, the elimination of Hezbollah not only as a military movement, but also the ultimate objective is to erase Hezbollah from the Lebanese political picture.”

Hezbollah is under internal and external pressure to disarm and knows this latest fight is crucial. Intense clashes along Lebanon’s southern border between Hezbollah fighters and advancing Israeli troops have left dozens of Lebanese gunmen dead.

During a visit to the northern front Monday, Israel’s army chief Gen. Eyal Zamir said that Hezbollah is now fighting “a war for its very existence and is paying a heavy price for entering this battle.” He added that pressures exerted by Israel’s military will only “increase more and more.”

Hezbollah vows to keep fighting

“This is an existential battle. It is not a limited or simple battle,” Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said in a televised speech over the weekend. Kassem vowed that his group would fight to the end and never surrender.

Israel says that Lebanon has failed to disarm the group in accordance with the Lebanese government’s own plans, and that therefore Israel will carry out the mission itself.

Unlike previous conflicts with Israel, the current one comes as the Lebanese government has called Hezbollah’s military activities illegal and authorities have detained several members of the group for carrying weapons without a license.

Like previous wars, Hezbollah is being criticized by its opponents in Lebanon who blame the Iran-backed group for triggering this war by firing rockets into Israel. Hezbollah fired the rockets to avenge the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, less than two days after the U.S. and Israel began their attacks on Iran, triggering a war in the Middle East.

Israel retaliated with a campaign of airstrikes on parts of Lebanon that has so far left more than 1,000 people dead and over 1 million displaced from their homes in southern and eastern Lebanon as well as in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“Hezbollah took a suicidal initiative that will not change the equation,” said legislator Samy Gemayel, who heads the nationalist Kataeb Party, adding that Tehran is using Lebanon “as a platform to defend Iran.”

A previous 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 ended with a draw. A 14-month conflict that started in October 2023 — when Hezbollah fired rockets in support of Palestinians a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel — killed much of Hezbollah’s political and military command and left the group severely weakened but not destroyed.

Strikes followed by backlash

After airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s institutions even in central Beirut, residents protested and forced the group to close a branch of al-Qard al-Hasan in the heart of the capital. Bowing to the pressure, workers removed the financial institution’s sign and dismantled ATMs, marking the end of its presence in central Beirut.

Amnesty International has said that the al-Qard al-Hasan branches are not legitimate military targets under international humanitarian law and that the strikes should be investigated as war crimes.

“The Israeli military has appeared to assume that labelling something as Hezbollah-affiliated, be that healthcare workers, homes in border villages, or financial institutions, makes it targetable. That’s wrong,” said Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Mahmoud Karaki of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Society said that during the last war in 2024, his group lost 153 members in Israeli attacks. But he vowed that the group would continue its work as it has done in previous wars.

“By targeting us, they are targeting the safety network for the people and their steadfastness in areas under attack,” Karaki said

The Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson alleged that Hezbollah is using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, a charge that the paramedic group strongly denies.

Hezbollah and Iranian officials have said that any halt in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran should also include a stop to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Senior Hezbollah official Mahmoud Qamati told Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed TV on Monday that “Iran will not leave Lebanon nor the resistance, nor will it allow that Lebanon remains vulnerable,” adding that “Lebanon will be part of this victory and will not be left alone.”

When Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was asked if Tehran could accept a ceasefire to stop strikes on Iran while they continue in Lebanon, he said: “I don’t think so.”

“We do not believe in a ceasefire; we believe in ending the war. And ending the war means exactly that — ending the war on all fronts,” Araghchi told Al Jazeera English, adding that this includes Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and “other countries of the region.”