Lebanon – World Health Organization: Attacks on Tire hospitals deprive patients of critical care

According to preliminary information received from the Lebanese authorities, at least 86 people, including health care workers, were injured as a result of the strikes that targeted Jabal Amel Hospital yesterday.

The organization’s representative in Lebanon, Dr. Abdel Nasser Abu Bakr, said that the attacks caused severe damage to the emergency department and the intensive care unit, adding that Jabal Amel Hospital is one of the few hospitals currently still operating in the south of the country.

Speaking from Beirut on Tuesday with journalists in Geneva, Dr. Abu Bakr noted that in just three months, the World Health Organization verified the occurrence of… “Nearly 190 attacks on health care.” – including 11 attacks in the past week alone – killing 128 healthcare workers and wounding 332 others.

He added: “These attacks not only kill and maim, but also deprive people of the health services they desperately need.”

Pictures in the crossfire

The health sector in Tire district has suffered the worst repercussions of the hostilities during the past few days. Of the three hospitals in the district, two of them were damaged, namely Jabal Amel Hospital and Hiram Hospital – which was attacked last Sunday – while the third hospital is “overburdened, as it is dealing with an increasing influx of infected patients,” according to Dr. Abu Bakr.

He stressed that access to basic services is now available “critically restricted”, Especially in southern Lebanon, where patients face delays of up to 48 hours to reach the nearest medical referral facilities.

He said that six hospitals have not yet resumed maternity services, “and their services are currently limited to care in emergency rooms,” stressing that “For pregnant women and newborns, any delay in receiving care could mean the difference between life and death.”

The representative of the World Health Organization also alerted to the difficult health situation inside the shelter centers that host about 130,000 people who fled the fighting, where it was monitored “An increasing trend in the incidence of acute watery diarrhea.” He warned of the increasing risk of cholera with the advent of the summer season.

Needs outweigh response

As humanitarian needs exceed the pace of the response, Dr. Abu Bakr stressed the need to sustain the necessary funding for basic health services.

He added: “We also need to stop attacks targeting healthcare, and we need to provide effective protection for the healthcare sector.”Thus, he reiterated his calls for a permanent ceasefire and a stable peace.

Since the start of the current escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on March 2, nearly 3,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, and about 10,400 others have been injured, most of them civilians.

Dr. Abu Bakr confirmed that these were the last months “One of the bloodiest periods Lebanon has witnessed since the outbreak of the conflict in October 2023.”