2024-01-02 21:01:42
Medics carry a journalist injured by Israeli fire in the border village of Alma El-Chaab to the hospital in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre, Friday, October 13, 2023. HASSAN AMMAR / AP
Director of the Marjeyoun public hospital, located in the south-east of Lebanon, Doctor Mounès Kalakech has lived in an atmosphere of war since the start of border clashes between Hezbollah and the Israeli army on October 8. More than seventy people were taken to his establishment, which also serves the surrounding area. For employees residing outside of Marjeyoun, “the road to reach the hospital is dangerous, due to Israeli bombings”, explains the doctor, contacted by telephone. The big town is not empty, but “more than 60% of the inhabitants left it to take refuge in safe regions”.
Violent attacks on both sides of the demarcation line are a daily occurrence. According to statements by his spokesperson, on December 29, 2023, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is concerned that these “firefights (…) risk triggering a wider escalation between Israel and Lebanon.” The leaders of the Jewish state are increasing threats of an expansion of fighting, affirming that their army is ready.
If total war were to break out, the Marjeyoun hospital, very close to the border, could hold “one month of autonomy”, assesses Doctor Kalakech. Medicines and fuel oil to power the electricity generators were distributed to him, notably by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
A minimum of self-sufficiency
Guaranteeing a minimum of self-sufficiency is a priority of the emergency unit activated from the start of hostilities by Firas Abiad, Minister of Health in the resigned government of Najib Mikati. “During the 2006 war, Israel bombed bridges and roads from the first days; the Lebanese regions found themselves isolated. We are afraid that this scenario will repeat itself in the event of an escalation”, specifies Wahida Ghalayini, head of nursing at Beirut’s public hospital and coordinator of the emergency unit, located in the ministry’s premises, in the suburbs of the capital. In the operating room, televisions are on continuously, broadcasting images from southern Lebanon and Gaza.
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The “July War”, seventeen years ago, took Lebanon by surprise. Israel launched strikes after the kidnapping of two soldiers by Hezbollah in a deadly ambush. But, at that time, hospitals had more resources, human and material. The serious Lebanese financial crisis since 2019 has weakened the sector: doctors and nurses have emigrated; the means of the public sector have collapsed.
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