MSF to Asharq Al-Awsat: War Strains Lebanon’s Health Care System

Paramedics evacuate an injured person from a site hit by an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon (AFP)
Paramedics evacuate an injured person from a site hit by an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon (AFP)
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MSF to Asharq Al-Awsat: War Strains Lebanon’s Health Care System

Paramedics evacuate an injured person from a site hit by an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon (AFP)
Paramedics evacuate an injured person from a site hit by an Israeli airstrike in eastern Lebanon (AFP)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that Lebanon’s health care system is reaching its limits as the ongoing conflict strains resources.

Hospitals are at risk of running out of crucial wound care supplies each time they receive a rush of injured patients.

MSF’s medical coordinator in Lebanon, Dr. Luna Hammad, told Asharq Al-Awsat that crowded shelters with poor sanitation are fueling outbreaks of infectious diseases, adding further pressure on the health sector.

Lebanon’s health crisis has worsened since Israel expanded its military operations on September 23, displacing over 842,000 people, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Hospitals in southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut have evacuated patients, as thousands have been injured amid continued bombing, placing immense strain on the struggling health system.

Hammad announced that after the conflict began on Oct. 8, 2023, MSF launched a new project to support the health of displaced people.

Mobile medical teams have been visiting towns in Lebanon’s southern Tyre and Nabatieh regions to provide primary care, medications, and mental health support.

MSF has also donated 10 tons of essential medical supplies to hospitals across Lebanon for wound care.

Following the escalation of Israeli attacks in mid-September 2024, MSF expanded its efforts, deploying 14 medical teams to shelters and camps across Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Sidon, northern Lebanon, and the Bekaa.

These teams, including doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals, are addressing urgent health needs.

“Our donations have now reached 88 tons, and we’ve also supplied fuel to hospitals when needed,” Hammad told Asharq Al-Awsat.

After intensified Israeli strikes, MSF had to close clinics in Burj al-Barajneh and Baalbek-Hermel due to security risks. MSF has since partially reopened the Baalbek-Hermel clinic so patients can access essential chronic disease medications.

“Our clinics in Burj Hammoud and Arsal remain fully operational,” said Dr. Luna Hammad, while noting that the Baalbek-Hermel clinic is open on a limited basis to supply chronic medications.

Lebanon’s health system is under severe strain as conflict and mass displacement escalate, said Hammad.

“The crisis has overwhelmed the system, especially with civilians and health workers increasingly under attack,” she explained.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that nearly half of Lebanon’s primary health centers—about 100—are now out of service due to security concerns.

Hammad urged the protection of civilians, health workers, and facilities, including ambulances.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports 246 ambulances have been targeted, with 178 paramedics killed and 279 wounded in the strikes.

Moreover, Lebanon’s medical sector is under increasing pressure as the conflict persists.

“Many patients had to flee without personal items or medications,” said Hammad, adding that “people with chronic illnesses urgently need access to primary care to avoid serious complications.”

She also cautioned that overcrowded shelters with poor sanitation are at risk of infectious disease outbreaks, adding further strain to the already burdened health system.

MSF warns that war conditions like those in Lebanon can overwhelm any health care system.

Hammad stressed the need to “protect health care workers, facilities, and ambulances” to ensure the system can meet urgent needs.

She also highlighted the importance of foreign aid in supporting the medical sector.

“Every initiative to strengthen the health system is vital. Hospital staff we are assisting have reported they risk running out of supplies for wound care whenever injured patients arrive in large numbers. Our teams are dedicated to providing these essential materials,” said Hammad.

Since January, MSF has delivered 75 tons of medical supplies to Lebanon, with an additional 45 tons shipped from Cyprus by sea in October.



Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.