Mona Abozeid has grown within the walls of a hospital. He has also lived among nurses and doctors all the wars that have shaken this medical center. It is also your home, your refuge. But it was not until this last one – the fiercest, the most brutal – that he feared that the neat white walls and sterilized rooms would make him a target for attacks rather than protection. “Israel was trying to send us a message to get out of here, but at no time did we consider it,” says the general director of the hospital Najdeh in Nabatiyathe main city of southern Lebanonlocated 13 kilometers from the border with Israel. “We had no choice but to stay and continue offering our medical services,” he tells this newspaper.
When on September 23 Israel launched its most violent offensive against southern Lebanon – more than 500 people died that day alone – Abozeid activated the disaster plan at Najdeh hospital. Since the beginning of the war against Gaza On October 7, 2023, the Lebanese medical system He began to prepare for the worst. “There, in the Palestinian enclave, they have destroyed everything, they attacked the hospitals, they razed them,” denounces the doctor Shafi Fouanimedical director of the hospital that belongs to Lebanese Popular Relief. “Each department, each vehicle is a target for them and they justify it by saying that they believed there was a militiaman in the hospital,” he explains to EL PERIÓDICO.
For this reason, around twenty doctors, another number of nurses and part of the essential non-medical personnel passed the 64 days with its 64 nights of this war sleeping in the hospital. “It’s our job, our country, our area,” declares Abozeid, who despite the ceasefire declared on November 26, still lives in the center because his house has been left uninhabitable after Israeli attacks blew out all the glass in its windows. “We knew we had to stay to provide medical service to the wounded and our people; if we close and leave, no one will take care of them,” he acknowledges. As the main hospital in the south of the country, civilians, children and Hezbollah militiamen. In the ambulances, often only pieces of bodies arrived.
222 medical workers killed
The worst omens came true. In the two months of Israeli bombings indiscriminate against Lebanon, Lebanese hospitals were also attacked: at least 67 times. According to the Ministry of Health, 222 medical workers lost their lives in the 231 attacks against emergency medical personnel of the Israeli Army. “In all previous wars we felt safe, but this time we were not, because, for the first time, medical personnel and rescue and emergency services became targets of attacks,” denounces the doctor. Hussein Sueidaorthopedic surgeon at Najdeh Hospital. “The paramedics “They are deliberately attacked, which seriously hinders our work, because if you don’t have anyone to take your patient to the hospital, how do you deal with it?” he adds.
In many cases, Israeli troops directly bombed the civil defense centersboth Lebanese and those affiliated with Hezbollah or its Shiite ally Amal. Often, they did it at night, while they were sleeping. On other occasions, they waited for ambulance teams to approach the attacked location to recover survivors and bodies from the rubble to attack again. This violence “is hampering rescue and relief efforts and is ultimately contributing to increase mortality rates“, denounced the World Health Organization (WHO). During the first week of cease-firethe Israeli Army attacked Lebanese civil defense teams while they were clearing rubble and searching for bodies in the border town of Naqoura. They also detonated an explosive drone near them, forcing them to withdraw from the area.
war crimes
But the risk they face does not stop them from continuing to do their work. “As the civil defense center in Nabatiye was directly attacked and the Lebanese Red Cross suffered attacks in its vicinity, its teams decided stay in the hospital with us,” explains Dr. Fouani. “As our hospital does not have its own ambulance or civil defense service, all the members of the rescue and emergency services decided to stay here before the fear that ambulances and all the vehicles they need to manage the rescues were attacked,” he adds. Throughout the war, around 500 injured They were treated there. Some did not make it out of the hospital alive.
Only during the first month of war a hundred primary care centers of the 207 health centers throughout the country had to close, according to the WHO. “These types of attacks against medical personnel are illegal according to the rules of war and should be punishable,” he denounces. Ramzi KaisLebanon researcher Human Rights Watch. “Medical personnel enjoy special protection under international law; therefore these attacks are illegal and include apparent war crimes,” he tells EL PERIÓDICO. “Part of the rhetoric What we see in Gaza we are seeing in Lebanon, including the [primer ministro israelí, Binyamín] Netanyahu saying that there are weapons in hospitals and that ambulances are being used to transport weapons and fighters,” he adds.
Protected by international law
Even rescue services linked to Amal or Hezbollaheven if the organization has an armed wing, they cannot be attacked as they do not perform non-combatant functions, according to the guidelines of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Civil Defense, made up of 2,500 workers on the government payroll and others 6,000 volunteershas been the one who has received the most hits in the last two months. “Israel targeted them just to harm people,” Dr Sueida acknowledges. “Attacks against medical personnel, hospitals and ambulances only worsen access to health careespecially in the south and even more so throughout the country,” denounces Kaiss.
While walking through the hospital, CEO Mona Abozeid greets her employees. “Thank God you’re okay,” they repeat, shaking hands sincerely. “We built this hospital during the Lebanese civil war in 1985 to help those poorer people who had been affected by the Israeli attacks; “Back then, there was no Hezbollah and they only bombed civilians,” he recalls. “Now, the Israeli Army bombs all kinds of people, civil and militaryand we are still here,” he adds. Some areas of the hospital have been disabled by the impact of attacks just 200 meters from the medical center. But that does not stop them. Their sense of duty is greater than any heavy foreign bomb.
