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Fear Hinders Foreigners Injured in Beirut Blast from Getting Immediate Treatment

Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs visiting the Jordanian field hospital in Ras Dekwaneh (National News Agency)
Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs visiting the Jordanian field hospital in Ras Dekwaneh (National News Agency)
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Fear Hinders Foreigners Injured in Beirut Blast from Getting Immediate Treatment

Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs visiting the Jordanian field hospital in Ras Dekwaneh (National News Agency)
Jordan's Minister of Foreign Affairs visiting the Jordanian field hospital in Ras Dekwaneh (National News Agency)

Abedel, a 38-year-old Bangladeshi laborer, stands in front of one of the field hospitals that provide medical services in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael district. His wounds were minor, or they might have not been serious if they were treated promptly, but he did not go to the hospital immediately after he was injured in the August 4 explosion that rocked the Lebanese capital's port, and his wounds have become infected.

"I was in Bourj Hammoud, and the glass fell on me," he says, using the few Arabic words he knows and pointing to his hand. He was afraid of going to the hospital because he did not have the money and because of his illegal status.

Many of these workers speak of a similar fear to that of the Lebanese, but for them it was doubled. Some of them suddenly recognized that they could not speak the language, others wanted to flee, only for fear of security forces or the army discovering they were staying in the country illegally. As for the gravest fear; it was to die without someone recognizing them, as one worker said in broken Arabic: “My family is not here. Who will know my name.”

Dozens of workers visit the rescue tents that were set up in the squares near the site of the explosion on a daily basis. Most of them did not receive appropriate treatment despite the Ministry of Health’s decision to treat all victims at its expense without discriminating between Lebanese and non-Lebanese, but this decision, of course, did apply to them. So, most of them decided to "bite the wound” in other words, treat it at home, like Hamza, another Bangladeshi worker, who was injured in his face and hand in the Nabaa suburb and decided a week after the explosion to treat his injuries in one of the field clinics because they are free of charge.

The explosion claimed the lives of 11 Bangladeshi, Filipino and Ethiopian nationals.

Unlike Abedel and Hamza, 24-year-old Mekdes, an Ethiopian worker in a beauty shop in Gemmayze, was not panicking about going to the hospital, but about dying before being found.

"I heard a loud sound and glass shattering. Everyone ran away and I was left alone on the shop floor. I didn't know what was happening and why I couldn't move." I did not think of anything except that I was alone, abandoned and forgotten, as if I were nothing," she said, stuttering.

Mekdes was able to go to the hospital with the help of a friend, but she was unable to get immediate treatment even though she had a head injury. “Take a (Panadol) pill, your injury is minor”, a hospital employee told her. He then added: "You should go to (Rafic Hariri) Hospital." She then went to another hospital, where she was treated.

Mekdes considers Beirut her second home. She has been working here for more than seven years. She is saddened by these words, but she says, with a smile: “Beirut is beautiful and will bounce back and become more beautiful. Perhaps, treating me is not a priority because I am Ethiopian."

Hundreds of workers lost their homes or part of them due to the explosion, especially those who live in areas close to the port, such as Nabaa, Sin el-Fil and Karm al-Zaytoun.

They had already been suffering from problems that were exacerbated by the dollar crisis and then the coronavirus epidemic. This had already pushed many of them to return to their country, and those who remained, either because they couldn’t buy tickets, as is the case for Abedel, or because they chose, like the Lebanese, to confront whatever comes next, as Mekdes said.

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As It Attacks Iran's Nuclear Program, Israel Maintains Ambiguity about Its Own

FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
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As It Attacks Iran's Nuclear Program, Israel Maintains Ambiguity about Its Own

FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)
FILE - This file image made from a video aired Friday, Jan. 7, 2005, by Israeli television station Channel 10, shows what the television station claims is Israel's nuclear facility in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, the first detailed video of the site ever shown to the public. (Channel 10 via AP, File)

Israel says it is determined to destroy Iran’s nuclear program because its archenemy's furtive efforts to build an atomic weapon are a threat to its existence.

What’s not-so-secret is that for decades Israel has been believed to be the Middle East’s only nation with nuclear weapons, even though its leaders have refused to confirm or deny their existence, The Associated Press said.

Israel's ambiguity has enabled it to bolster its deterrence against Iran and other enemies, experts say, without triggering a regional nuclear arms race or inviting preemptive attacks.

Israel is one of just five countries that aren’t party to a global nuclear nonproliferation treaty. That relieves it of international pressure to disarm, or even to allow inspectors to scrutinize its facilities.

Critics in Iran and elsewhere have accused Western countries of hypocrisy for keeping strict tabs on Iran's nuclear program — which its leaders insist is only for peaceful purposes — while effectively giving Israel's suspected arsenal a free pass.

On Sunday, the US military struck three nuclear sites in Iran, inserting itself into Israel’s effort to destroy Iran’s program.

Here's a closer look at Israel's nuclear program:

A history of nuclear ambiguity Israel opened its Negev Nuclear Research Center in the remote desert city of Dimona in 1958, under the country's first leader, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion. He believed the tiny fledgling country surrounded by hostile neighbors needed nuclear deterrence as an extra measure of security. Some historians say they were meant to be used only in case of emergency, as a last resort.

After it opened, Israel kept the work at Dimona hidden for a decade, telling United States’ officials it was a textile factory, according to a 2022 article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an academic journal.

Relying on plutonium produced at Dimona, Israel has had the ability to fire nuclear warheads since the early 1970s, according to that article, co-authored by Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists, and Matt Korda, a researcher at the same organization.

Israel's policy of ambiguity suffered a major setback in 1986, when Dimona’s activities were exposed by a former technician at the site, Mordechai Vanunu. He provided photographs and descriptions of the reactor to The Sunday Times of London.

Vanunu served 18 years in prison for treason, and is not allowed to meet with foreigners or leave the country.

ISRAEL POSSESSES DOZENS OF NUCLEAR WARHEADS, EXPERTS SAY

Experts estimate Israel has between 80 and 200 nuclear warheads, although they say the lower end of that range is more likely.

Israel also has stockpiled as much as 1,110 kilograms (2,425 pounds) of plutonium, potentially enough to make 277 nuclear weapons, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a global security organization. It has six submarines believed to be capable of launching nuclear cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles believed to be capable of launching a nuclear warhead up to 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles), the organization says.

Germany has supplied all of the submarines to Israel, which are docked in the northern city of Haifa, according to the article by Kristensen and Korda.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST POSE RISKS

In the Middle East, where conflicts abound, governments are often unstable, and regional alliances are often shifting, nuclear proliferation is particularly dangerous, said Or Rabinowitz, a scholar at Jerusalem's Hebrew University and a visiting associate professor at Stanford University.

“When nuclear armed states are at war, the world always takes notice because we don’t like it when nuclear arsenals ... are available for decision makers,” she said.

Rabinowitz says Israel's military leaders could consider deploying a nuclear weapon if they found themselves facing an extreme threat, such as a weapon of mass destruction being used against them.

Three countries other than Israel have refused to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: India, Pakistan and South Sudan. North Korea has withdrawn. Iran has signed the treaty, but it was censured last week, shortly before Israel launched its operation, by the UN's nuclear watchdog — a day before Israel attacked — for violating its obligations.

Israel's policy of ambiguity has helped it evade greater scrutiny, said Susie Snyder at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group that works to promote adherence to the UN treaty.

Its policy has also shined a light on the failure of Western countries to rein in nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, she said.

They “prefer not to be reminded of their own complicity,” she said.