Israel Has Attacked 55 Hospitals, Lebanon’s Health Minister Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 25, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Has Attacked 55 Hospitals, Lebanon’s Health Minister Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 25, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli air strike on Khiam in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel on October 25, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad said Friday that Israel has carried out attacks on 55 hospitals — 36 of which were directly hit — leaving 12 people dead and 60 wounded.

Abiad told reporters that eight hospitals have been closed while seven are still partially functioning.

He said that paramedic groups have been targeted in different areas, killing 151 people and wounding 212. Of the paramedics killed, eight remain in their ambulances in south Lebanon with Israel’s military preventing anyone from reaching them, he said.

"Attacks against the medical and paramedic sectors in Lebanon are direct and intentional aggressions," Abiad said, adding that Israel’s military claims to have intelligence information on what is happening in Lebanon, thus cannot say that these attacks happened by mistake.

"This is a war crime," Abiad said.



More than 43,000 Palestinians Killed in Yearlong War in Gaza, Palestinian Health Ministry Says

 Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo
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More than 43,000 Palestinians Killed in Yearlong War in Gaza, Palestinian Health Ministry Says

 Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza take a rest as they flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip October 23, 2024. REUTERS/Hassan Al-Zaanin/File Photo

The number of Palestinians killed in the yearlong war in Gaza has passed 43,000, more than half of them women and children, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.

The tally includes 96 dead who arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past two days, the ministry said.

Israeli troops have launched an ongoing operation in northern Gaza that included a raid on a hospital over the weekend. The military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday.

The World Health Organization accused Israel of detaining 44 male hospital staff. Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid, Reuters reported.

Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the yearlong war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes. Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations, said there was heavy fighting around Kamal Adwan Hospital, though not inside it, and that weapons were found inside the facility.

The official said medical staff were detained and searched because some of the militants had disguised themselves as medics.

According to the official, the military had helped international organizations relocate 88 patients and medical staff to other hospitals in the weeks leading up to the raid, and that during the raid itself, troops had brought 30,000 liters of fuel and medical supplies from international organizations to help keep the facility running.

The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks. The official said the operation in the northern Gaza city of Jabaliya would last “several more weeks.”

The UN said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 43,020 people have been killed and 101,110 others wounded since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023.