Lebanon: a battle significantly damaging to well being care

Since 7 October 2023, 47% of assaults on well being care – 65 out of 137 – have confirmed deadly to not less than one well being employee or affected person in Lebanon, as of 21 November 2024.

This can be a increased share than in any energetic battle right now throughout the globe – with practically half of all assaults on well being inflicting the loss of life of a well being employee.

As compared, the worldwide common is 13.3%, primarily based on the SSA’s figures from 13 international locations or territories that reported assaults in the identical interval, 7 October 2023–18 November 2024 – amongst them Ukraine, Sudan and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Within the case of oPt, 9.6% of the entire variety of incidents has resulted within the loss of life of not less than one medical skilled or affected person.

In response to the SSA, 226 well being employees and sufferers had been killed in Lebanon and 199 injured between 7 October 2023 and 18 November 2024.

In the identical interval, the SSA registered a mixed complete of 1401 assaults on well being in oPt, Lebanon and Israel – 1196 in oPt, 137 in Lebanon and 68 in Israel.

Civilian well being care has particular safety

“These figures reveal but once more a particularly worrying sample. It’s unequivocal – depriving civilians of entry to lifesaving care and concentrating on well being suppliers is a breach of worldwide humanitarian regulation. The regulation prohibits the usage of well being services for army functions – and even when that’s the case, stringent situations to taking motion in opposition to them apply, together with an obligation to warn and to attend after warning,” mentioned WHO Consultant in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar.

Worldwide humanitarian regulation states that well being employees and services ought to at all times be protected in armed conflicts and by no means attacked. Well being services should not be used for army functions, and there needs to be accountability for the misuse of well being services.

“There should be penalties for not abiding by worldwide regulation, and the rules of precaution, distinction and proportionality ought to at all times be adhered to. It’s been mentioned earlier than, indiscriminate assaults on well being care are a violation of human rights and worldwide regulation that can’t change into the brand new regular, not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, nowhere,” mentioned WHO Regional Director for the Jap Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy.

The vast majority of incidents in Lebanon affect well being employees

The bulk (68%) of incidents in Lebanon registered by the SSA impacted well being personnel, a sample seen repeatedly in the previous couple of years, together with in Gaza prior to now 12 months. In Lebanon, roughly 63% affected well being transport and 26% affected well being services.

Assaults on well being care hit twice. First, when well being employees lose their lives or when a well being centre is obliterated, and once more within the following weeks and months when the injured can’t be handled, those that are depending on common care don’t obtain it and when kids can’t be immunized. 

“Casualty numbers amongst well being employees of this scope would debilitate any nation, not simply Lebanon. However what the numbers alone can not convey is the long-term affect, the remedies for well being situations missed, ladies and women prevented from accessing maternal, sexual and reproductive well being providers, undiagnosed treatable ailments and, in the end, the lives misplaced due to the absence of well being care. That’s the affect that’s onerous to quantify,” mentioned Dr Abubakar.

1 in 10 hospitals in Lebanon immediately impacted

The higher the blow to the well being workforce, the weaker the longer-term capacity of a rustic to recuperate from a disaster and ship well being care in a post-conflict setting

Lebanon is a decrease middle-income nation with a reasonably superior well being system that’s been hit onerous by a number of crises lately. After hostilities in Lebanon escalated in September 2024, the rising variety of assaults on well being have precipitated additional pressure on an already over-burdened system.

Right now, the nation’s well being system is underneath excessive duress, with 15 out of 153 hospitals having ceased to function, or solely partially functioning. Nabatieh, for instance, one in every of Lebanon’s 8 governorates, has misplaced 40% of its hospital mattress capability.

“Assaults on well being care of this scale cripple a well being system when these whose lives rely on it want it probably the most. Past the lack of life, the loss of life of well being employees is a lack of years of funding and an important useful resource to a fragile nation going ahead,” Dr Balkhy concluded.

To this point this 12 months, between 1 January 2024 and 18 November 2024, a complete of 1246 assaults on well being care had been registered globally, in 13 international locations or territories, killing 730 well being employees and sufferers and injuring 1255.

Be aware to editors

The Surveillance System for Assaults on Well being Care (SSA), established in 2017 by the World Well being Group, is an impartial world monitoring mechanism whose aim is to gather dependable information on assaults on well being care and to then determine patterns of violence that inform danger discount and resilience measures in order that well being care is protected. The SSA additionally supplies an proof base for advocacy in opposition to assaults on well being care.