The United Nations says “the targeting of health and relief operations is broadening” in Lebanon. Hospitals say they have been forced to close or are struggling to operate.
Euan Ward
It was 12:54 a.m., and Elie Hachem had not slept in days when the chief nurse at his Beirut hospital called him in a panic.
The Israeli military had announced that it would begin striking “Hezbollah facilities” in the area, and had ordered the hospital to evacuate. Dozens of staff members and patients were still inside, among them premature babies hooked up to incubators, Mr. Hachem said.
“We only had 20 minutes,” he said, describing the events this month at St. Therese Hospital, where he is the director, on the outskirts of Beirut. “Maybe less.”
The airstrike landed just 80 yards from the hospital and caused heavy damage, collapsing ceilings and flooding parts of the health facility, though no one was harmed,Mr. Hachem said.
The next day, fearing their luck would run out, Mr. Hachem ordered the Christian hospital shut down. “The staff are traumatized,” he said.
St. Therese is near Dahiya, a densely packed civilian area adjoining Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway and which has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes. It is one of at least nine hospitals in Lebanon that are now shuttered or only partly functional, according to the World Health Organization.
