Three hospitals in Lebanon including one on the outskirts of Beirut’s southern suburbs announced Friday the suspension of work, amid ongoing Israeli bombardment.
Also Friday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged the international community to pressure Israel “to allow rescue and relief teams to reach bombed sites and allow them to move” casualties, after more than 40 emergency personnel were killed in recent days.
Sainte Therese Hospital on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs reported “huge damage” and said “Israeli warplanes’ targeting… the vicinity” of the facility on Thursday “led to the halt of hospital services”, in a statement carried by the official National News Agency (NNA).
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South Lebanon’s Mais al-Jabal hospital on the border with Israel announced “the halt to work of all departments”, citing factors including “enemy targeting of the hospital” since last October and problems for supply lines and staff access.
The comment also came in a statement on the NNA.
The director of south Lebanon’s Marjayoun governmental hospital, Mouenes Kalakesh, told AFP that “an Israeli air strike targeted ambulances at the main entrance to the hospital”, killing paramedics who were bringing wounded to the facility.
“We had been providing medical services since the beginning of the war, but staff shortages and today’s bombardment have forced the closure of the hospital,” located less than 10 kilometres (six miles) from the border, he said.
The air strike killed four paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, the NNA said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Israel have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for almost a year, with the group saying it is acting in support of Palestinian ally Hamas over the Gaza war.
But Israel, saying it is targeting Hezbollah in an effort to make Israel’s northern area safe for the return of displaced people, has intensified its bombardment campaign since September 23.
The bombing has killed more than 1,110 people, according to an AFP tally of official figures, and displacing up to one million, according to officials.
Many have fled the Marjayoun area following the recent escalation, with some towns and villages in the area sustaining damage for the first time.
The Marjayoun hospital had been operating “for four days without an anaesthesiologist and laboratory specialists, because many people have fled”, Kalakesh said.
Also Friday, Hezbollah said an Israeli strike killed a rescuer at the site of an overnight air raid in south Beirut.
On Thursday, Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad said 97 rescuers had been killed since Hezbollah and Israel began fighting last October.
Among that number are more than 40 paramedics and firefighters killed by Israeli fire in just three days, he said.