Israel’s army struck exterior the gates of a hospital in southern Lebanon with out warning on Friday, killing seven paramedics and forcing the ability to shut, the hospital director instructed The Related Press a day after one of the crucial lethal assaults on well being staff within the weeks since preventing escalated between Israel and Hezbollah.
The account of the Friday airstrikes that flung hospital doorways off their hinges and shattered glass was the newest to element assaults that Lebanon’s well being ministry says have killed dozens of well being staff.
Marjayoun hospital director Mounes Kalakesh mentioned that even earlier than Friday’s assault, ambulance crews within the space had been so reluctant to function that the ability had not obtained anybody wounded for days. “We’ve not been in a position to work. There was concern and panic among the many workers,” he mentioned.
Kalakesh mentioned the federal government hospital didn’t obtain any warning from Israeli forces earlier than the assault, though close by villages have obtained such warnings to evacuate.
Israel has not commented particularly on the incident. Friday’s assault got here hours earlier than Israel’s Arabic-language army spokesman accused the Hezbollah militant group, based mostly in southern Lebanon, of utilizing ambulances to move weapons and fighters, and warned medical groups to remain away from the group. The spokesman offered no proof.
It’s a cost that Lebanese officers and hospital administrators, together with Kalakesh, deny. Lebanon’s well being minister has accused Israel of committing “a struggle crime” by concentrating on medical groups and paramedics.
The well being ministry on Thursday mentioned 40 paramedics, firefighters and well being care staff had been killed in Israeli assaults over three days, making it much more difficult to look after individuals wounded within the intense preventing. The ministry has mentioned greater than 100 well being staff have been killed within the yr for the reason that struggle in Gaza started and since Israel and Hezbollah stepped up exchanges of fireside alongside the border.
The paramedics with the Islamic Well being Committee are a part of the coordinated well being ministry response to crises in Lebanon. Different civil defence groups have expressed concern for his or her security, with some saying they got here underneath assault whereas clearly recognized and working in areas the place they had been transporting the wounded or placing out fires.
Israeli strikes have landed close to the Marjayoun hospital earlier than however by no means had come so shut, Kalakesh mentioned. He described the paramedics dying of their burning automobiles.
The 45-bed hospital is now shut down.
“I’m accountable for this workers. I need to defend them,” Kalakesh mentioned, explaining the choice to evacuate. On the time of the Friday assault, there have been 30 workers within the hospital. His crew was already exhausted after a yr of working near the entrance line.
Different teams have expressed concern. A Lebanese Pink Cross convoy, escorted by Lebanese troops and coordinated with the UN peacekeeping drive in Lebanon, got here underneath hearth on Thursday. A Lebanese soldier was killed and 4 Pink Cross volunteers had been wounded.
Individually on Thursday, Israeli forces struck rescue groups with the Islamic Well being Committee in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the southern village of Odeissah, killing at the least 4.
In Odeissah, responding ambulances had been hit by Israeli hearth and three medics who had been wounded within the preliminary assault had been killed as rescuers tried to achieve them, the well being ministry mentioned. Within the Beirut suburbs, the crew working to take away rubble from the preliminary airstrike was hit in a drone assault that killed a driver and wounded seven, mentioned Islamic Well being Committee spokesman Mahmoud Karaki.
Focusing on the well being sector undermines the security web for the general public, Karaki mentioned, He mentioned 145 of his crew members have been wounded over the previous yr.
Lebanon’s well being ministry has mentioned 9 hospitals and 45 well being care centres have been broken throughout that point.
Hours after the Friday assault exterior Marjayoun hospital, one other hospital within the southern city of Bint Jbeil was shelled by Israeli forces after receiving a warning to evacuate. 9 members of the medical and nursing workers at Salah Ghandour Hospital had been wounded, most of them significantly.
The hospital later shut down due to the harm.
