Panic in Beirut as Israel threaten attack on capital's hospitals

A deadly strike in the vicinity of a Beirut hospital and earlier threats to Al-Sahel, another hospital has brought fears that Israel could begin directly targeting the capital's healthcare system after hitting or forcing many hospitals in the south and north-east to close down.

Eighteen people, including four children, were killed in a violent strike in the late hours of Monday near Beirut’s largest public hospital, as Israel bombarded the city’s southern suburbs for another night.

An attack on the impoverished Meqdad neighbourhood in Jnah wounded more than 60 others and resulted in the destruction of three buildings.

An initial death toll said four were killed, including a child, but the health ministry’s emergency response team said the death toll has since climbed.

Rescue efforts continued Tuesday, with emergency workers rummaging through the rubble to search for any more bodies – or hopefully survivors.

The strike hit very close to the Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), one of Lebanon’s largest government-run medical facilities, which reportedly suffered some damage.

"Yesterday we were subject to an aggression. Whether we were a direct target or not, there are no red lines for the Israelis," said hospital director Jihad Saadeh, adding that the damage to the hospital was "severe."

No hospital staff members were harmed, he said.

As Israel struck, chaos erupted in the streets as residents rushed to evacuate the area. They had not been warned by the Israeli military that the neighbourhood would be hit. Patients and visitors at the RHUH were frightened that Israel would target the building directly.

Arabic spokesman for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, had warned more targets will be hit "tonight" in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The region has been battered by a month of strikes since cross-border hostilities between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group and Israel spiralled into a full-blown war.

While most residents have left, some have chosen to remain.

Other Monday night strikes were reported in Haret Hreik, Burj el-Barajneh and Hadath.

A small fishing port in Ouzai, another impoverished residential area that runs along the coast between Beirut and the airport, was hit for the first time.

The Israeli military on Tuesday claimed that it had targeted naval equipment belonging to Hezbollah, which has denied what it calls Israel’s lies that it uses civilian infrastructure to store its weapons.

Mayhem after Israel’s Al-Sahel hospital claims

Meanwhile, an Israeli military statement put out a short while prior to the attack in Jnah claimed that another nearby hospital was being used by Hezbollah.

Adraee wrote without evidence on X that the militant group was keeping large sums of money and gold underneath the Sahel General Hospital in the southern suburb of Haret Hreik, saying that the group was using this reserve to finance its activities.

He shared a 3D layout of the hospital and the alleged storage rooms where he claimed Hezbollah keeps assets.

Israel has routinely made claims that were later debunked about so-called dual military and civilian use of hospitals in Gaza and now in Lebanon. But observers say Israel's military doctrine unofficially includes targeting civilian infrastructure of the support base of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Owner of the hospital and MP Fadi Alameh told local media that the Israeli allegations were baseless, but said he was forced to evacuate the building for staff and patient safety.

"Al-Sahel Hospital has nothing to do with [political] parties," the Amal Movement lawmaker said Monday night, "and I call on the [Lebanese] military leadership to inspect and make sure that there are no tunnels underneath it."

But shortly after his initial tweet, Adraee released a second statement saying the Israeli army was not planning to target the Sahel Hospital, but called on the Lebanese government to "return stolen funds" in Hezbollah’s possession.

People in Lebanon are worried that Israel could replicate horrific tactics used in Gaza, where it bombed, invaded and laid siege to most of the enclave’s hospitals in more than a year of war, claiming that Hamas was using them as command centres.

British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta wrote on Tuesday: "Last night Israel spread it's usual lies about one hospital in Beirut and then attacked another hospital. The destruction of the health system in Lebanon as it was in Gaza is central to Israeli military doctrine."

Abu Sitta worked in Gaza for months following the war and has spoken about his harrowing ordeal there.

"In Gaza Israel was able to normalise savegery in war and raise the bar in brutality so high everything it does elsewhere appears restrained," he wrote on X.

Hospital tour debunks claims

Sahel Hospital carried out a press tour of the facility on Tuesday to shut down the Israeli allegations.

Journalists were taken to the last two floors underground and reportedly given the freedom to tour the hospital.

The Spot Shot online news platform said its camera crew inspected all rooms, even those usually out of reach to non-medical staff, including the morgue.

Head of the parliamentary health committee and MP Bilal Abdallah slammed the Israeli allegations Tuesday, while politician Wiam Wahhab said the Sahel Hospital was "older" than Hezbollah and talk about warehouses beneath it was "illogical and incorrect."

Concerned that this could be an indication that Israel could begin targeting hospitals, he called on the Lebanese army to deploy around the facility and protect it.

Healthcare sector bearing the brunt

Several hospitals and medical centres have been out of service after being damaged by nearby strikes or fighting in southern Lebanon, at the forefront of the war.

Lebanese Health Ministry Director General Fadi Sinan said Tuesday that Israel had already destroyed more than 50 clinics and 150 ambulances.

More than 150 paramedics have been killed and more than 15 hospitals damaged, he revealed, as he stressed that that the health sector must be kept away from Israel’s "war of annihilation."

"This attack [on Monday] is one of the most dangerous…prohibited by all international conventions and treaties, and we ask the international community to respect the conventions and put pressure to stop the aggression against Lebanon and the health sector."

Israel has gone after and killed paramedics from the privately-run Islamic Health Authority (IHA), as well as the state’s emergency agencies. Attacks on the IHA have included a drone strike on one of their centres in Beirut last month.

The latest casualties were over Sunday and Monday in south Lebanon. At least four members of the IHA and Islamic Risala Scouts were killed in four different villages in Israeli attacks.

Three vehicles were also damaged.

Clashes between Hezbollah’s fighters and Israeli soldiers have continued in the border area, particularly around the village of Ayta al-Shaab where battles have raged for days.

Israel has failed to make any real progress in their ground invasion, but Tel Aviv says the operations remain "limited" and seek to dismantle Hezbollah’s installations at the frontier.

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in Beirut on Monday in the latest push by Washington to reach a ceasefire deal between Lebanon and Israel, but some analysts remained sceptic that the violence will end anytime before a US administration is in office.