- Healthcare facilities are being forced to close in areas affected by airstrikes.
- Our teams are working to ensure the continuation of care in our facilities while suspending some activities in heavily affected areas.
- All warring parties must spare civilians, medical facilities, and medical personnel.
As Israeli attacks intensify in Lebanon, healthcare facilities in areas most affected by airstrikes are being forced to close. This is leading to devastating consequences for civilians and their access to healthcare.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams are working tirelessly to ensure the continuation of care in our existing facilities while scaling up our activities to address the needs emerging from the ongoing conflict. However, due to the intense Israeli airstrikes, we were forced to suspend some activities in highly affected areas. We continue to adapt our activities to provide people with much-needed healthcare.
One of the hospitals we planned to support and had donated medications and trauma kits to, in Nabatiyeh, only a few kilometres away from the active frontlines, was hit on 5 October.François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon
MSF urges all warring parties to spare civilians, medical facilities, and medical personnel in Lebanon to ensure that vital healthcare services can adequately address people’s urgent medical needs.
“Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs,” says François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon.
Last week, MSF was forced to completely close its clinic in the Palestinian camp of Burj el Barajneh in the southern suburbs of Beirut. We also had to stop our activities in Baalbek-Hermel, northeast Lebanon temporarily. Both of these areas were heavily affected by the strikes.
“We partially reopened our clinic in Hermel this week to ensure that patients receive their medications, providing them with a two-to-three-month stock of essential drugs, depending on the severity of their condition and medical risks,” adds Zamparini.
Patients in these areas are already vulnerable, struggling to access the healthcare they desperately need. The closure of medical facilities has left them, specifically people living with chronic diseases, without the essential services they need.
MSF medical teams also remain unable to operate properly in southern Lebanon due to a lack of safety guarantees for our medical personnel.
“One of the hospitals we planned to support and had donated medications and trauma kits to, in Nabatiyeh, only a few kilometres away from the active frontlines, was hit on 5 October,” explains Zamparini.
An MSF mobile medical team that had been actively supporting general healthcare centres in Nabatiyeh and other areas closer to the Lebanese border since November 2023 has been forced to stop its activities. The team, which was once able to reach areas near the border, can no longer do so and is currently limited to operating only as far as Saida, about 50 kilometres north of the southern border, where needs are highest.
In the last two weeks, Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of at least fifty paramedics. This brings the total number of healthcare workers killed since October last year to over a hundred, as reported by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. The heavy Israeli bombardments have also severely disrupted access to medical care across Lebanon. As of 1 October 2024, six hospitals and 40 general healthcare centres have closed their doors as the intensity of the fighting made it impossible to work without safety guarantees, according to OCHA.
The armed conflict is worsening an ongoing humanitarian crisis, aggravating existing needs. Lebanon’s healthcare system was already overburdened by the country’s economic crisis, which has caused the emigration of many medical staff and strained the capacity and resources of medical facilities. Local health centres, already at capacity, are now facing increasing pressure as they try to meet the growing medical needs of displaced people.
About MSF in Lebanon:
MSF is an independent international medical humanitarian organisation that provides aid and free healthcare to people in need, without discrimination. MSF first began to work in Lebanon in 1976, and its teams have worked in the country without interruption since 2008.
In 2023, MSF teams worked in six locations across Lebanon, providing 13,609 free medical consultations for vulnerable communities, including Lebanese citizens, refugees, and migrant workers. MSF’s services include mental healthcare, sexual and reproductive healthcare, paediatric care, vaccinations, and treatment for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
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