“In all, over 100 medical and emergency workers have been killed across Lebanon since October last year,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a UN briefing, citing figures she said were compiled by the United Nations humanitarian office.
“We’ve had several reports also of air strikes targeting other medical centres and of paramedics as well as firefighters being killed,” she added.
World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmeier stated that since Sept. 17, there had been 18 attacks on health facilities in Lebanon, killing 72 health workers.
Of 207 primary healthcare centres in conflict areas in Lebanon, 100 are now closed due to Israeli military attacks, according to the WHO.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 42,000 people, most of them women and children, following an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.
Over 2,200 people have been killed and over 9,500 wounded in Lebanon in almost a year of cross-border fighting, with most of the deaths occurring in the past weeks.
Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.
