FEARS ARE MOUNTING that Beirut’s medical facilities may collapse as it deals with the huge numbers of civilians injured in this week’s Israeli bombing campaign. Hospitals in the city had already been struggling to cope in the wake of the pager attacks last week.
“The health infrastructure is the big concern for the moment. If if it continues with this intensity,” Colin Lee, an experienced NGO worker in Lebanon who is now Director of Programme Operations at Goal Global, said in an interview with The Journal.
“There’s no bed space, they don’t have the stockpiles of blood or anything really in place.”
Report from the Lebanese capital yesterday showed that thousands of civilians were flooding from Hezbollah strongholds like south Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley towards Beirut to safety.
It came as intensive Israeli bombing happened across those areas.
Despite the raids Hezbollah is continuing to launch rockets into Israel with Galilee and areas near Haifa struck by the fire.
Sources have said that some of those launches are happening close to Camp Shamrock where Irish troops are taking regular shelter in bunkers.
The human cost on the first day of the bombing campaign left 558 dead, including 50 children, representing the deadliest day of violence since Hezbollah and Israel went to war in 2006.
Lee, who has returned to Ireland recently with his family, said his wife’s family are living near the port in Beirut are considering fleeing to the mountains as the security situation deteriorates further.
“They live opposite the port that was devastated in the blast four years ago, and it seems the international community have forgotten about that but thankfully they are out of the firing range.
“But they would be considering options as well of going up to the mountains for and just in case it intensifies over the next while because certain items become unavailable.
“They have been stockpiling, they are not looking to fly out at the moment but they’re very worried.
“I was going to go out for work next week, and I was told ‘don’t come’ and that’s an indication of how serious it is at this stage.”
Goal has an aid project in the south of the country which is the main area likely to suffer in Israeli attacks.
At the moment, Lee believes, it will be Beirut and the health infrastructure that will see a worsening crisis as thousands flood tp the city amid the fighting.
Lee said he is aware that there is a shortage of medicines, blood as well as failing generators and too few doctors and nurses working to aid the large number of people injured in recent days.
“Generators are not working… it is impacting the whole population and it could get worse. That is the big concern,” he said.
Lee said that there is a further complication and that is a “splintering of the social fabric” as old sectarian issues raise their heads again. Lee said this is because of the level of poverty and chaos outside Beirut and particularly in rural areas.
A 2019 report by the US State Department states that there are 67.6% of the population made up of the Muslim faith and then 32.4% comprised of Christian-aligned religious groups.
“Most people will say they didn’t want to get dragged into a war, and they’re now being dragged into one,” Lee said.
“I think there’s that underlying feature within Lebanese society still very much there. A lot of the media outlets are talking about a war between Lebanon and Israel. It’s a war between Hezbollah and Israel and the losers in this are the Lebanese population. They’re the ones who are being set back each time,” he said.
Comments yesterday by the WHO’s representative in Lebanon, Abdinasir Abubakar, supported Lee’s assertion that the health system is at best fragile in the wake of the more than 3,000 people injured in the pager and radio attack last week.
“Many people had both eye and hand injuries, which required two different sets of operations,” he said.
Irish woman Ettie Higgins is the UNICEF deputy representative in Lebanon – speaking from Beirut she said children in particular were suffering devastating impacts as a result of the attacks.
“I am speaking to you from Lebanon to highlight the situation of children in light of the dangerous escalation that has had adverse effects on their physical and mental well-being.
“On Monday alone, at least 35 children were reportedly killed in Lebanon.
“Countless more children are in danger as I speak, exposed to ongoing attacks, displaced from their homes and unable to rely on an overstretched and under-sourced health system,” she said.
Higgins said that Monday was was “Lebanon’s worst day in 18 years”.
“This violence has to stop immediately, or the consequences will be unconscionable.”
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