“I don’t want to close the hospital,” said Elie Hachem, director of St. Therese Hospital, on the outskirts of Beirut, that has been damaged by airstrikes. “The community needs us.”

Lebanon’s Hospitals Buckle Amid Israel’s Offensive Against Hezbollah

The United Nations says “the targeting of health and relief operations is broadening” in Lebanon. Hospitals say they have been forced to close or are struggling to operate.

by · NY Times

It was 12:54 a.m., and Elie Hachem had not slept in days when the chief nurse at his Beirut hospital called him in a panic.

The Israeli military had announced that it would begin striking “Hezbollah facilities” in the area, and had ordered the hospital to evacuate. Dozens of staff members and patients were still inside, among them premature babies hooked up to incubators, Mr. Hachem said.

“We only had 20 minutes,” he said, describing the events this month at St. Therese Hospital, where he is the director, on the outskirts of Beirut. “Maybe less.”

The airstrike landed just 80 yards from the hospital and caused heavy damage, collapsing ceilings and flooding parts of the health facility, though no one was harmed, Mr. Hachem said.

The next day, fearing their luck would run out, Mr. Hachem ordered the Christian hospital shut down. “The staff are traumatized,” he said.

St. Therese is near Dahiya, a densely packed civilian area adjoining Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway and which has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes. It is one of at least nine hospitals in Lebanon that are now shuttered or only partly functional, according to the World Health Organization.

The United Nations said some hospitals had shut down after they were damaged in attacks. Others have been abandoned after staff fled, fearing for their safety. The ones that remain operational say they are quickly running out of beds as patients evacuated from other facilities are brought in.

Last month, Israel mounted a major offensive in Lebanon, targeting the leaders of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant and political group, and destroying much of its arsenal. The bombing has forced nearly one million people to leave their homes.

Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israeli positions in support of the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023. The Lebanese group and the Israeli military traded blows back and forth over the past year, displacing communities on both sides of the border.

U.N. officials say Israel’s large-scale airstrikes are “indiscriminate,” and the escalating attacks have overwhelmed Lebanon’s beleaguered health system. More than 2,300 people have been killed and over 10,000 injured in Lebanon since the conflict began a year ago, with a vast majority of the casualties in the last three weeks, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The Israeli military has accused Hezbollah of embedding itself in civilian infrastructure, including hospitals. Lebanese officials have denied that claim and Hezbollah has denied operating in civilian sites. The Israeli strike that killed the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as well as other strikes in which Hezbollah leaders have been killed, were in Dahiya.

Since the conflict with Hezbollah intensified three weeks ago, the W.H.O. says it has recorded 16 attacks on Lebanon’s health sector in which 65 workers were killed. The United Nations’ human rights office said that hospitals, clinics and ambulances had all been struck amid the war.

“We need assurances that my staff are safe and my patients are safe,” said Mr. Hachem, the St. Therese director. “I don’t want to close the hospital. The community needs us.”

Staff members worked around the clock for days to repair the damage from the strike early this month, he said. Making the repairs was a huge financial burden for the private hospital, he added, since it has received little funding from Lebanon’s strapped government.

Still, by last Sunday afternoon, they were prepared to reopen. Then, without warning, another Israeli airstrike landed nearby — damaging the hospital once again, Mr. Hachem said.

“I’m back to square one,” he said.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, condemned Israeli strikes on health facilities.

“This is not something that is happening as an act of nature,” said Mr. Abiad in an interview. “Civilians are not only targeted but are being prevented from receiving help.”

The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said this month that “the targeting of health and relief operations is broadening,” calling such attacks “serious violations” of international humanitarian law.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it “strikes solely on the base of military necessity.” The military added, without presenting evidence, that Hezbollah has “increased their abuse of emergency rescue vehicles” like ambulances to transport fighters and other members in recent days, making them, in Israel’s view, legitimate targets. Lebanese officials and hospital directors have denied those claims.

Hospitals in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military is conducting its ground invasion, have been particularly affected. At least three major hospitals in the region — once serving many thousands of people — have been shut because they were damaged or the staff had fled.

Many of the patients have been transferred to Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the country’s largest public hospital. It lies on the outskirts of Dahiya, and so far has not been directly hit.

For weeks, the surrounding area has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes, depopulating the once-bustling streets and reducing entire apartment buildings to rubble. The Israeli military has been targeting Hezbollah. But caught in the middle, health facilities wonder if they might soon come under fire.

“We are anticipating the worst,” said Dr. Jihad Saadeh, director of the Rafik Hariri hospital.

Staff members were exhausted, he said, with some sleeping in the hospital. Others were too afraid to come to work — fearing airstrikes on their commutes or that their families might be killed or injured while they were away from home. The hospital has 550 beds but is fast approaching capacity as patients arrive from other health centers.

“Everything has limits,” he said. “If this continues, it will be full.”

Dr. Saadeh has worked through wars before. He began his medical career in 1982, the same year of another Israeli invasion of Lebanon. He said the strain on Lebanon’s health system today was much like 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah last fought a major conflict — killing more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians.

The number of dead in recent weeks has already surpassed that figure.

“The streets are not safe,” said Dr. Saadeh.

Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.

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