Lebanon Hospitals Close As Israeli Strikes Hit Health Facilities

At least four hospitals in Lebanon announced on Friday that they were suspending work because of Israeli strikes, while a Hezbollah-affiliated health organisation said that 11 paramedics had been killed in the past 24 hours.

The four closures capped two weeks of Israeli strikes on hospitals and healthcare workers in Lebanon that have shuttered at least 37 facilities and killed dozens of medical staff, according to the World Health Organisation.

Late on Friday night, the Israeli army issued a statement alleging that Hezbollah was using medical vehicles to transport fighters and weapons, warning that it would strike any vehicle it suspected of being used for military purposes.

Hospital staff in southern Lebanon said that health facilities treating wounded civilians had been hit with direct Israeli strikes. Reports said.

Dr Mounes Kalakish, director of the Marjayoun governmental hospital in southern Lebanon, said that the hospital had no choice but to close on Friday after an airstrike hit two ambulances at the hospital’s entrance way on Friday, killing seven paramedics. Reports said.

“The nurses and doctors were terrified,” he said. “We tried to calm them and carry on working, but it was not possible.”

The emergency director of the hospital, Dr Shoshana Mazraani, said she was sitting at the front of the building when the strike happened. She said that she heard the cries of the paramedics who were hit and ran towards the damaged ambulances but was warned to stay back by colleagues fearful of a follow-up strike.

The Marjayoun hospital had already been hanging on by a thread, Dr Mazraani said, with a core team of just 20 doctors remaining from the centre’s usual 120 staff. The closure on Friday was a “tragedy for the region”, she said.

“We serve a huge population here, many villages. We had 45 inpatient beds, all now empty. We were the only hospital providing dialysis in the region, for example. We have had to turn away emergency patients and tell others to leave.”

Rita Suleiman, the nursing director at the Saint Therese hospital, on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs, told the BBC that the hospital had also struggled on after being badly damaged by a strike on Friday but was later forced to suspend all services.

Other hospitals were carrying on with severely limited services. Dr Mohammed Hamadeh, director of the Tebnine hospital, said a nearby strike, had rocked the building. Reports said

“The blast was very close,” he said. “We are still trying to operate, but we can not leave the confines of the hospital because it is too dangerous.”

Late on Friday night, the Salah Ghandour hospital in Bint Jbeil announced it had closed after being “violently shelled,”following an order from the Israeli army to evacuate.

BBC/Shakirat Sadiq