Lebanon’s health system reels under repeated Israeli attacks

Two years ago, Dr. Mohammed Ziara watched Israel ravage Gaza’s health care system, shelling hospitals, striking ambulances and forcing patients to evacuate. Now Ziara — along with other medical workers, human rights groups and many civilians — warns that the same scenario is unfolding in Lebanon.

Israel is pushing deep into the southern part of the country in its campaign against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, a powerful militant force and political party that long has exercised de facto control over much of Lebanon’s Shiite community. To describe its strategy in this war, the Israeli military invokes the devastation it wrought in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks.

Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets over Beirut last month, warning that after “great success in Gaza, a new reality is coming to Lebanon, too.”

“I’ve lived this before,” Ziara, a burn surgeon from Gaza City, told The Associated Press on Thursday at the government hospital in the Lebanese port city of Sidon. “I cannot go back to Gaza now,” Ziara said. “But I can be here, in Lebanon.” As it did with Hamas in Gaza, Israel accuses Hezbollah of hiding in and operating from civilian areas, and using hospitals and ambulances for military purposes. Israel has increasingly targeted first responders and medical centres, forcing several hospitals to evacuate.

Since the war between Israel and Hezbollah reignited on March 2, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 54 health professionals as of Sunday, according to the Lebanese ministry.