Country: Lebanon Source: Médecins Sans Frontières Under a fragile ceasefire, health workers rest and prepare in case hostilities resume. The war in Lebanon is now under a fragile 10-day ceasefire, but it has had a devastating impact on the country’s health care system and staff. Over 46 days of bombardment by Israeli forces, attacks on first responders and hospitals put health care workers at risk and resulted in injuries and deaths. Nevertheless, Lebanese health workers — including Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams —continued to provide lifesaving care under immense pressure. During the escalation of conflict, health care staff in southern Lebanon worked around the clock, responding to near-daily influxes of injured and killed people brought to hospitals. Patients, including children, arrived with severe injuries, including heavy bleeding, traumatic amputations, and complex wounds. Health care workers often feared that their family members or friends would arrive among the dead and wounded. Taking shelter while working In Nabatiyeh, thousands were forcibly displaced following Israeli forces’ massive bombardment and blanket evacuation orders. Yet many families chose to stay behind, and health care workers remained at their posts to keep lifesaving services running. At the Nabatiyeh Governmental Hospital, around 42 families, including medical staff and their children, sheltered inside the hospital. “Health care staff in Nabatiyeh’s hospitals slept inside the hospitals for a total of 46 days, ” says Tania Hachem, MSF medical program manager. “Some couldn’t go see their families, while others had relatives staying with them in the hospital. ” We had just seen him that very morning. .. Imagine, you see someone and everything is perfectly normal, until suddenly it isn’t. He was a paramedic. He left and never came back. Staff at the nearby Najdeh Chaabiye Hospital also responded to mass casualty events while sheltering inside the facility because movement inside the city was extremely dangerous under ongoing strikes by Israel forces. Even obtaining basic supplies would require ambulances to travel to other cities. “Part of our emergency preparedness plan was for everyone to remain inside the hospital, so no one had to go back and forth, ” says Dr. Mona Abu Zeid, director of Najdeh Chaabiye Hospital, who also stayed in the facility throughout the escalation. “Doctors slept here, and their children stayed with them. Patients injured by Israeli strikes would be brought in with devastating injuries, heavy bleeding, and life-altering wounds. Sometimes children would come to the hospital with both their parents killed. ” Providing care under attack From March 2 up until the recent 10-day ceasefire, the World Health Organization reported near-daily attacks on health care, with a total of 147. These attacks damaged hospitals and left over 100 health workers dead and 233 injured. In some cases, teams were struck in repeated attacks on the same locations while responding to injured patients. At least six hospitals were forced to close, while many others sustained damage. At Nabatiyeh Governmental Hospital, just hours after speaking with a paramedic, Dr. Ahmad Zreik received the body of his colleague, who had been killed. “We spent the morning outside together, just chatting, ” explains Dr. Zreik, who practices general medicine at the hospital. “Then he left to respond to an emergency. He suffered severe trauma and was killed as a result. We had just seen him that very morning; we had just spent time together. Imagine, you see someone and everything is perfectly normal, until suddenly it isn’t. He was a paramedic. He left and never came back. He returned in body, but without his soul.” Part of our emergency preparedness plan was for everyone to remain inside the hospital, so no one had to go back and forth. Doctors slept here, and their children stayed with them. Hospitals supported by MSF in Sour and Nabatiyeh sustained some damage due to strikes in close proximity. In Sour, medical staff at Hiram Hospital were wounded by shattering glass; at the Lebanese Italian Hospital, bombings in the vicinity damaged medical equipment including kidney dialysis machines; and medical staff at Jabel Amel Hospital reinforced windows after they were shattered by the force of nearby blasts. The 10-day temporary ceasefire remains fragile. Health care workers in hospitals are trying to rest as well as prepare in case hostilities resume. MSF continue to support facilities including Jabal Amel, Lebanese Italian, Nabatiyeh Governmental, Najdeh al Shaabiyeh, Rafik Hariri, and Baalbek Governmental hospitals, among others, providing donations as well as trauma and emergency care.
46 days of bombardment have strained Lebanon’s health care system
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