Under constant fire from Israel, several hospitals at Lebanese border evacuate but vow to return

At the entrance to the Marjayoun Government Hospital in southern Lebanon on Friday, an Israeli drone opened fire on paramedics working to transfer wounded people into the facility. Five paramedics were killed, hospital director Moanas Kalakish told Mada Masr, and seven more were wounded.

Kalakish described a state of terror that took hold of medics and nursing staff after the “direct attack by the Israeli enemy” at the hospital gates.

“After consultations and talking with the medical staff, they were evacuated,” Kalakish said, adding that they moved patients with them to the Sheikh Radwan Hospital further north.

Patients and staff of at least two other hospitals in border areas in south Lebanon were likewise evacuated on Friday to medical facilities further north in the Nabatieh Governorate after coming under direct fire from the Israeli military.

The hospitals are just one of the many facilities impacted by Israel's attempted invasion of border areas in Bint Jbeil. Villages and towns located in the district lie directly facing settlements on the other side of the border, where Israel’s military forces are attempting to stage incursions into Lebanon but have been met with fierce resistance by Hebollah fighters.

Commenting on the pattern of attacks against healthcare staff and facilities this week, Lebanese Health Minister Firas al-Abiad said on Friday that the targeting is “significantly limiting what is available to respond to disasters and continue providing health care services.”

Since Israel announced its intention to invade Lebanon on Monday its military has intensified attacks on border areas in the Bint Jbeil district where the three evacuated hospitals are located, including Yaroun, Aitroun and Maroun al-Ras. Medics and paramedics transferring the wounded to the hospitals have been increasingly exposed to or directly targeted by Israeli fire, forcing them to come to the difficult decision on Friday to evacuate the area. 

“This is not the first time the hospital has been targeted,” said Kalakish.

Israel has said that its attacks on medical personnel are attacks on  Hezbollah fighters and weapons are being transferred “in rescue vehicles.” The Israeli military spokesperson released a statement to that end on Friday, mentioning the Islamic Health Authority by name.

The 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.

The Islamic Health Authority has been repeatedly targeted in Israeli attacks since October, which have killed 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. Medical personnel can lose their protective status enriched in the convents “if they commit, outside their humanitarian function, acts harmful to the enemy.” However, even in such a circumstance, the Israeli military would face a legal obligation to prove that the attack was necessary and proportionate by providing evidence of what the medical personnel were doing, how attacking them would constitute a legitimate military objective and whether the collateral damage was proportionate. 

In another statement on Saturday, the Israeli military threatened to bomb a mosque next to the Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil, claiming it was being used as “a command center.”

The hospital itself was struck with four artillery shells on Friday, at least one of which has impacted the surgery ward. The force ruptured the hospital roof, shattered glass, and sent shrapnel flying, said a medical source from the hospital speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

Six members of staff who were present in the surgery ward at the time suffered minor injuries, the source said. The staff and wounded likewise evacuated the facility and were transferred to the hospitals further north in.

A third hospital, the Meiss al-Jabal Government Hospital, around 19 km east along the border, also evacuated north on Friday, issuing a public statement to announce the facility’s closure and describing the difficulty of continuing work. “The siege on the front border villages of the south has intensified,” the staff statement said.

“Roads and supply lines to the hospital were cut off. It became difficult for medical crews and nursing and administrative staff to reach them, making it difficult to access electricity, diesel, medicines, medical supplies, food and water.”

The staff called on the international community to take a clear stance against Israel’s targeting of medical facilities and civilians.

The border areas in south Lebanon are now largely evacuated, with hundreds of thousands of residents forcibly displaced over the past week, in which Israel has issued threats claiming households will come within the line of fire.

Even the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), present in the area with a peacekeeping mandate, have been ordered by Israel’s military to evacuate certain positions, according to a statement UNIFIL issued on Saturday. “Peacekeepers remain in all positions,” said UNIFIL Spokesperson Andrea Tenenti, adding that the forces have contingency plans ready to activate “if absolutely necessary.”

Meanwhile, Hezbollah forces continue to push back against Israel’s attempted incursions at Adeisseh, Aitroun, Yaroun, Ramish, and Kfar Kila, according to statements issued by the group on Saturday.

With highly dangerous conditions at the border, medics and paramedics are now working from facilities further north in the same governorate, Nabatieh. However, the governorate is subject to daily airstrikes too.

In Nabatieh city’s Nabih Berri Hospital, which is now one of the larger facilities operating in the region, director Hassan Wazzani couldn’t take long to speak on the phone due to how busy the hospital was. He told Mada Masr that the hospital is still operating, however, and is ensuring that patients in need of urgent or specialized treatment are transferred again to hospitals further north, in Saida.

Thirty-seven health facilities nationwide are no longer able to operate and 28 healthcare workers were killed on Thursday alone, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has told the media.

Most hospitals in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which have been exposed to relentless nightly bombing for weeks, are also evacuated, while the Rasoul al-Azam facility came under fire on Saturday. An airstrike on Thursday damaged the Saint Therese Medical Center in Hadath, southeast of the capital, forcing it to partially close.

Nine people were killed last week, meanwhile, in a bombing that targeted the offices of the Islamic Health Authority in Beirut.

Much like in the suburbs of Beirut, healthcare workers in the southern governorates of Nabatieh and Sur continue to serve those who remain, despite the daily risks posed by ongoing bombardment.

Patients were carefully evacuated from Marjayoun to another hospital in Nabatieh, said Kalakish, stressing that such a solution is only temporary.

“We are only doing this so that we can regain our strength and energy,” he said, “so that we can return to the hospital as soon as possible.”