The UN Aid Coordination Office, OCHAreported that ambulances and shelters “targeted or hit in Lebanon, causing further casualties“, adding that the UN health organization WHO and healthcare partners have continued to deliver life-saving surgical supplies to frontline healthcare workers.
International humanitarian law provides special protection for ambulances, healthcare workers and their patients and should not be targeted, OCHA insisted on an online updateAs Lebanese officials said, an Israeli airstrike killed five health workers in the south of the country.
According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), 92 people have been killed and 92 injured in 38 attacks on health care facilities in Lebanon over the past year, since Hezbollah’s rocket fire into northern Israel increased with the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
Hospitals evacuated
Nearly a hundred healthcare institutions in southern Lebanon had to close due to Israeli bombings and
ground operations and the WHO described five hospitals as “non-functional” and four in areas “of intense conflict” that were forced to evacuate staff and critical cancer and dialysis patients to other hospitals already operating at full capacity.
“The protection of citizens and health care is a legal and moral obligation that must be upheld,” said Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “Attacks on healthcare cannot remain one of the defining features of conflict in this region.”
In addition to supporting emergency care, WHO health teams are “also stepping up efforts to prevent infectious disease outbreaks, focusing on strengthening surveillance and community engagement in early detection and response,” said a report. update shared by OCHA.
“Despite ongoing humanitarian efforts, the operational environment remains very challenging,” OCHA said. “Active hostilities, disrupted supply chains and physical obstacles – such as damaged infrastructure and roadblocks – continue to hinder the delivery of crucial, life-saving aid.”
Jabalia bakery burns down
Dr. Balkhy also expressed deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in northern Gaza, where the Israeli army has stepped up operations in recent days and issued new evacuation orders.
UNRWAthe UN agency for Palestinian refugees, announced on Wednesday that it has closed several schools converted into shelters in northern Gaza, as the siege of the Jabalia refugee camp enters a sixth day.
Only two of the eight wells in the Jabalia refugee camp remain functional, the UN agency said, while the UN World Food Program (WFP) warned that the North faces severe shortages of bread and food supplies as explosive ammunition “burned down the only bakery supported by WFP in the Jabalya refugee camp”.
No choice but to move south
About 400,000 people are believed to be in the north of the enclave, where hospitals are “overwhelmed and at risk of being put out of use,” WHO’s Dr. Balkhy said.
According to OCHAGaza checkpoints say civilians can only move south, while allowing “only a trickle” of humanitarian movement north.
Repeated attempts by the UN health agency and OCHA to reach medical teams with relief supplies and fuel “have been stymied or denied,” Dr. Balkhy, echoing the gloomy assessment of WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said Late on Wednesday it was announced that missions to evacuate seriously ill patients from northern hospitals and supply others had been hampered for two days in a row.
“WHO missions to evacuate critical patients from Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, to Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa (hospitals), amid hostilities and evacuation orders, were hindered…Another mission is planned for (Thursday).
Tedros noted in an online post that Kamal Adwan and Al-Awda hospitals were only “partially functional” and “struggling due to the shortage of supplies.” The Indonesian hospital cannot accommodate patients because it is “no longer able to provide services”the WHO chief said, adding that another mission to supply Gaza City’s As-Sahabah hospital “with fuel, blood units and medical supplies” was also denied on Wednesday.
