Israel is executing a systematic plan to weaken Lebanon’s healthcare sector, aiming to shut down hospitals and medical facilities, starting from the south and spreading to the Bekaa and southern Beirut.
The latest strike hit the entrance of Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut’s Jnah area, just an hour after Israeli forces warned Sahel Hospital to evacuate, alleging a Hezbollah tunnel with $500 million underneath.
Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad condemned this as an “Israeli attack on the healthcare sector.”
Jihad Saadeh, director of Rafic Hariri Hospital, said the facility was damaged by Israeli shrapnel but confirmed they are still operating at full capacity despite the severe damage.
He stated that the hospital would not be evacuated, and urgent repairs are needed.
Fadi Sinan, Director-General of the Ministry of Health, denied any involvement of the healthcare sector in non-medical activities and called on the international community to help stop Israel’s attacks on hospitals.
The strikes have damaged three hospitals in the Bekaa and shut down all facilities in southern Beirut.
In response, MP Bilal Abdallah sent a memo to global health organizations, documenting Israel’s violations of the healthcare sector.
Abdallah also questioned why Israel would target Rafic Hariri Hospital, which serves the poor and provides essential care like dialysis and cancer treatment, rejecting Israeli claims that it was linked to Hezbollah.
In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, Abdallah argued that Israel’s assault on Lebanon’s healthcare system was a reaction to the sector’s effectiveness in treating casualties from Israeli attacks and part of a broader attempt to undermine the resilience of the Lebanese people.
Following the attacks, Abiad set up an emergency operations rooms to distribute patients across remaining hospitals. Mobile clinics are also providing care to displaced people across the country.
Sahel Hospital’s media tour prompted an angry response from Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee, who accused journalists of ignoring alleged Hezbollah bunkers.
Hospital director Fadi Alameh dismissed these claims as false, saying the facility has no political ties and was turned into a field hospital after other hospitals were damaged.
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Alameh called the Israeli allegations about a Hezbollah money vault under the hospital “pure fabrication,” part of a strategy to destroy Lebanon’s healthcare system—similar to what Israel had done in Gaza.
Despite later assurances from the Israeli military that Sahel Hospital would not be bombed, Alameh insisted that a Lebanese army engineering team inspect the hospital and its surroundings to disprove the claims of an underground Hezbollah facility.
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, meanwhile, maintained that Hezbollah had constructed a tunnel under a hospital in southern Beirut, allegedly storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold.
