Israeli raids kill 2 paramedics, injure 7 near Tibnin Hospital, Lebanese Health Ministry condemns pattern of attacks

Israeli forces targeted health facilities and crews in three separate sites in the south and Baalbek on Sunday — areas which have been constantly exposed to Israeli fire over recent days.

A raid that struck the vicinity of the Tibnin Government Hospital in south Lebanon on Sunday afternoon injured seven people, including members of staff and patients, hospital director Mohamed Hamady told Mada Masr.

Some of the patients injured were in the health and childcare departments, Hamady noted.

The airstrike on the hospital, which incurred severe damage as a result, marked the third targeting of the hospital in the Bint Jbeil District over the past couple of days. The Israeli military has launched repeated airstrikes on the hospital’s vicinity over the past few days.

“We will continue our work and stay in the hospital despite all challenges and obstacles, and despite the Occupation’s successive raids,” the hospital director added.

Expressing the same commitment to remaining in the facility, neurologist Mazen Zaitoun told Mada Masr that there are 52 towns and villages in the Tebnine area that seek healthcare at the hospital, along with many injured by the Israeli aggression they suffer from on a daily basis.

Israel’s constant fire on areas near the country’s southeastern border obliged medical staff to evacuate  from three other hospitals nearby in October, leaving residents still present in the area with limited access to medical care.

In the southwest of the country, two paramedics were killed by Israeli warplanes on Sunday after they targeted a post used by the Islamic Health Authority and civil defense teams in the town of Bazouriyeh, the Lebanese Health Ministry said.

The Islamic Health Authority, a Hezbollah-affiliated paramedic authority, has operated in Lebanon for over 30 years alongside the Red Cross, the Islamic Mission Scouts, the Popular Paramedic Organization, and other professional agencies to provide paramedic services to residents across Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly targeted the authority since September, killing 68 of their staff members so far, according to a Lebanese Health Ministry tally.

Under the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, it is illegal for any party in a conflict to target medical personnel.

The town of Bazouriyeh in the Sur district of southwest Lebanon has also been bombed multiple times since Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon in late September.

In Lebanon’s northeast, where Israel has escalated its aggression in recent days, conducting waves of attacks and killing scores of people, an airstrike targeted the vicinity of Baalbek Government Hospital on Sunday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The ministry noted in its statement that the hospital, which was damaged in the attack, is currently extremely crowded with patients and injured individuals.

In a statement to Lebanon’s National News Agency on Sunday morning, the Baalbek hospital director confirmed that damage to the facility would be repaired quickly and that operations would continue at the hospital despite the Israeli aggression.

While the healthcare situation in southern Lebanon is deteriorating, Israeli forces continued to target civilian areas in Nabatieh city on Monday morning, killing 3 individuals in an airstrike on a house in Arabsalim in the Eqleem al-Tofah area. An Israeli missile was launched on another house in Zawtar al-Sharqieh town on Monday morning, shortly after an airstrike on the town, along with another house in Hallousiyeh town of Sur district. 

Other areas in Nabatieh attacked by Israeli forces on Sunday included an area between Roumine and Azzeh around the vicinity of Tayhat triangle,while an airstrike was launched on Hay al-Jabal in Jibchit village.

Nabatieh has been rendered uninhabitable, according to a Mada Masr correspondent in south Lebanon, who said the city has been left without services, electricity, running water and internet coverage as infrastructure has been severely damaged by Israel’s daily airstrikes.

At the border on Monday, in the villages of the western and central districts of Sur and Bint Jbeil, Israeli forces conducted raids and shelling on the towns of Maroun al-Ras, Yaroun and Aytaroun, as well as on Aynata, Hanin, Konin and Tayri in Bint Jbeil.

Airstrikes were launched by the Israeli military slightly further north on Monday morning as well, on the towns of Zabqine, Bayad, Qana and Rishkaniyeh near the Sur district.

In Marjayoun, Israeli artillery fired four shells on the outskirts of the town of Burj al-Muluk on Sunday, and shelled Khiam town as well, which is located around five kilometers north of the border with Israel.

Before the Israeli military’s withdrawal from Khiam on Saturday, Israeli tanks had approached the town on October 30, with Hezbollah fighters announcing over the ensuing days that they unleashed multiple counter-attacks against Israeli military “gatherings” at the southern outskirts of the town. 

While the Israeli military claimed on Monday that it had assassinated a Hezbollah leader, Abou Ali Reda, in the Baraachit area, no confirmation was issued by the group as of the time of writing. According to the Israeli military’s statement, Reda was responsible for firing anti-tank missiles on Israeli forces.

The Israeli military also stated that four drones launched toward Israeli territories were shot down on Monday morning, some launched from Lebanon and others from eastern Israeli territories. Hezbollah is yet to claim responsibility for the drones. 

The group, however, announced in a Monday morning statement that it targeted several Israeli settlements in the north with missiles from Sunday evening through Monday morning, including Sadaf town, the highest in the Galilee, and residential buildings in Krayot, north of Haifa city, among other areas.

The resistance group also announced that the Meron base was targeted twice, with one of the attacks focusing on the air surveillance unit.