Alwaght- Though the Israelis at the beginning of their invasion of Lebanon said they will only attack military targets, evidence suggests that a majority of their targets, especially over the past few weeks, have been civil sites and urban and health infrastructures.
A clear example is the bombardment of some hospitals. In fact, the Israeli aggression, similar to what happened in the Gaza Strip, has targeted Lebanon's health sector, since the occupiers recently ordered the evacuation of several hospitals in Beirut, including Sahel (Coastal) hospital, and claimed that there was a tunnel under them belonging to Hezbollah, a claim that was denied by the hospital authorities. The head of the Lebanese Doctors' Union has also announced that at least five hospitals have been rendered inoperable and 22 hospitals have been damaged by Israeli bombing.
Adopting Gaza model in Lebanon
Three nights ago, Israeli airstrikes targeted the Rafiq Hariri University Hospital, south of Beirut, killing at least 18 people, including 4 children. AFP footage showed a plume of smoke rising from the outskirts of Beirut. AFP reporters have also confirmed the bombing of the hospital parking lot.
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a Palestinian-British surgeon who witnessed Israeli airstrikes on hospitals, aid workers and doctors in Gaza, is now witnessing the same action in Lebanon and has told Aljazeera that there are significant similarities in tactics and strategies of the attacks against the medical centers with those carried out in Gaza. He says that to ethnically cleanse an area, you have to destroy its health care system, and this is what Israel has done in southern Lebanon and previously in Gaza.
Systematic bombardment of medical centers
Since its Lebanon war, the Israeli army has conducted multiple attacks on ambulances and aid workers, killing at least 120 medical staff side September 21.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health has confirmed that the Israeli army is not only targeting medical centers affiliated with Amal Movement, an ally of Hezbollah, but also it strikes Lebanese Red Cross and the Lebanese Civil Defense medical services under the supervision of the ministry of interior.
In a report, Al-Arabi Al-Jadid news reported that Israel deliberately targets the areas near the hospital and bombs the surrounding buildings so that the rubble of destruction accumulates around the medical centers. Also, the waves of explosions break windows and medical equipment in hospitals, and in this case, medical centers are forced to close down as the hospital equipment becomes unusable. Currently, hospitals across Lebanon are under intense pressure to provide health care amid the influx of injured patients.
In the past two weeks alone, Israeli attacks have targeted 37 health centers in southern Lebanon and Beirut. The bombing of Marjayoun and Bent Jbeil hospitals in southern Lebanon is an example of these targeted attacks.
Currently, Lebanon's health care system is on the verge of collapse with a severe shortage of manpower. While medical supplies are running out, more health workers are injured or killed .
Dr. Abu Sittah held in an interview that Lebanon is facing a severe shortage of specialist doctors, as one third of doctors have emigrated from the country due to the economic crisis. Currently, the hospitals of Beirut are in a full-scale crisis. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also confirmed that Israel's attacks have made it impossible to send large shipments of medical supplies and medical equipment to Beirut, because Israeli airstrikes have killed 28 medical workers in just 24 hours and, halting the activities of dozens of hospitals and clinics.
Why's Israel systematically striking medical centers?
Various reasons drive these Israeli attacks, among them:
1. Pressuring people to migrate: Bombing hospitals and medical centers is one of the illegitimate tools of the Israeli aggression to put heavy pressure on the Lebanese. With the closure of medical and health centers, the residents of the flash points will have no choice but to migrate and leave home. This inhumane method was also adopted in Gaza to force the people to move. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had earlier asserted that the pressure should be increased on the people of southern Lebanon to leave this region.
2. Deepening Lebanon society's gap: Additionally, bombing and destroying medical facilities in the south will build pressure on medical centers in the north and elsewhere, a situation that Israelis think will put the Lebanese at each other's throat. In fact, Israel's more pressure on southern Lebanon will also put more pressure on the people of the north, and this situation will lead to the aggravation of internal divisions in Lebanon.
