But weeks into Israel's assault, his worst fears came true when an ambulance he had helped purchase was bombed in an Israeli strike.

"We were trying to get the number of ambulances up to the bare minimum level," he told AFP.

"We weren't expecting the ambulances... to get directly targeted or bombed," said Nakhal, who says the vehicle he had raised money for was destroyed just four days after the volunteers had received it.

The October 9 strike, which took place in the southern village of Derdghaiya, killed five rescue workers, including the head of the local team and his son, according to the civil defence.

The recent Israeli strike was among what the United Nations says is a growing number of attacks on health care in Lebanon, with paramedics, first responders and ambulances increasingly in the firing line.

"More attacks continue to be reported where ambulances and relief centres are targeted or hit in Lebanon," UN humanitarian agency OCHA said after the Derdghaiya strike.

The Israeli army has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, though it has yet to produce any evidence.

Close call
 

Nakhal said a second crowdfunded ambulance, dispatched to the southern city of Nabatiyeh on Monday, was barely on the road for a day when it had a close call with heavy strikes.

Israel had earlier ordered residents of Nabatiyeh to leave their homes, adding to the one million already displaced by its ongoing assault on Lebanon.

On Wednesday, 16 people, including a civil defence worker, were killed in a strike on Nabatiyeh, according to Lebanon's health ministry.

The ambulance was spared.

The vehicles are sorely needed with Lebanon's healthcare system overwhelmed by Israel's relentless bombardment across the country since last month.

At least 1,373 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally of Lebanese health ministry figures, though the real toll is likely higher.

According to Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad, more than 150 paramedics and medical workers have been killed since cross-border exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah started last year.

More than 130 ambulances have been damaged over the same period, he said in a press conference on Tuesday.

The Lebanese Red Cross on Wednesday said two paramedics were wounded in a strike that hit the south Lebanon village of Jwaya while a rescue mission coordinated with UN peacekeepers was underway.

'Destruction and suffering'
 

Paramedics were also lightly wounded and ambulances destroyed by an Israeli strike in the country's south on Sunday.

As Israel intensifies its assault, Nakhal too is beefing up his efforts, as he works on securing a third ambulance for Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region.

"It's my way of dealing with the war and doing my part in this. It's one way of giving back to my community," he said.

He is working with Omar Abboud, a 30-year-old Lebanese data scientist living in New York, who raised $15,000 for the first ambulance within a day through social media.

They hope to dispatch the latest ambulance to civil defence volunteers in the Bekaa before the end of the month.

The ambulance attacks are an "example of the undeniable truth that Israel targets hospitals and ambulances with impunity", Abboud told AFP.

"Whether the ambulances are on the road for five days or five years is not relevant to me. When you're dealing with destruction and suffering at this scale, one life saved is enough."