Exploding Radios in Lebanon Disrupt Its Fragile Health System, WHO Says

People gather outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 September 2024. (EPA)
People gather outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 September 2024. (EPA)
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Exploding Radios in Lebanon Disrupt Its Fragile Health System, WHO Says

People gather outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 September 2024. (EPA)
People gather outside the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) in Beirut, Lebanon, 18 September 2024. (EPA)

Explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in Lebanon this week seriously disrupted its fragile health sector, the World Health Organization chief said on Thursday.

The UN health agency cited Lebanese health authorities' toll that 37 people had been killed and more than 3,000 injured in the pager blasts that detonated in areas considered strongholds of the anti-Israel group Hezbollah.

"These events have seriously disrupted Lebanon's already fragile health system," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, adding that the global body had distributed blood supplies and trauma kits in the country.

"The whole health system came under immense pressure very, very quickly," said WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan at the same briefing.

WHO's representative in Lebanon Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar said 100 hospitals were involved in the response. A series of drills ahead of the attacks and the stockpiling of emergency supplies helped prepare doctors and nurses in advance and limited the casualties, he said.

At the same briefing, Tedros said mpox cases were rising in Africa and the WHO planned to send 33 tons of supplies for testing, treating and preventing cases to the worst affected country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Friday.

He said he was encouraged by falling cases of Guinea Worm globally. "We now have the opportunity to make Guinea Worm only the second human disease to be eradicated," he said, referencing the eradication of smallpox in 1980.



Israeli Forces Shoot Dead 2 Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli army vehicles during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2024. (EPA)
Israeli army vehicles during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Forces Shoot Dead 2 Palestinians in West Bank

Israeli army vehicles during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2024. (EPA)
Israeli army vehicles during a military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2024. (EPA)

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Commenting on the incident, the Israeli army official said its troops exchanged fire with armed militants during a “counterterrorism” operation Wednesday in the Jenin area, killing one of the gunmen.

According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, one of the slain men was 17 years old. Four others were injured by Israeli fire during the raid, it said.

Violence has flared in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war erupted 12 months ago.

According to Palestinian Health Ministry data, over 750 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the territory since the war began. The northern West Bank, including Jenin and Tulkarem, has seen some of the worst violence.