Israel is applying the ‘Gaza doctrine’ to Lebanon: bombing hospitals |
Israel is applying the ‘Gaza doctrine’ to Lebanon: bombing hospitals
Saturday's strike was the second attack on the medical sector in just a few hours, the ministry added, following an airstrike on the village of Souaneh in southern Lebanon that hit a paramedic center, killing two workers and wounding five.
A total of 12 people, including medical and paramedical personnel, were killed in Burj Qalaouiyah in the Bint Jbeil district on Saturday. Israel targeted and struck the medical center where they were on duty. Since the start of this new phase of the war in Lebanon, the Israeli military has already killed 26 healthcare workers and wounded 51 others, according to data from the Ministry of Public Health. In a statement released on Sunday, the ministry condemned the practice of “targeting ambulances and rescue teams while they are on duty.”
Saturday's strike was the second attack on the medical sector in just a few hours, the ministry added, following an airstrike on the village of Souaneh in southern Lebanon that hit a paramedic center, killing two workers and wounding five. Killing rescue workers is certainly not a new practice. From October 8, 2023 – when the war in Lebanon began – to November 27, 2024, when Israel signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah that it has since violated over 10,000 times, more than 200 rescue workers on duty have been killed.
This is a “Gaza doctrine” – where the Israeli military destroyed 95 percent of medical centers and hospitals and killed approximately 1,700 doctors and medical workers – now being actively applied in Lebanon. The two-year siege of the Strip has effectively normalized every sort of crime against humanity, and it has done so right before the eyes of the entire world.
Attacks on civilian infrastructure are steadily on the rise in Lebanon. Two professors at the Lebanese University, the only public university in the country, were killed last Thursday, March 12, near the campus in Hadath. And on Saturday, another bridge over the Litani River, the Zrarieh Bridge, was destroyed by the Israeli military. Meanwhile, the bombardment of Beirut continues. For days now, it is not just Dahiyeh – the southern Beirut area where Hezbollah has historically maintained its command centers in the capital – that is under attack. The bombings have expanded from the southern neighborhoods into much more central areas like Bachoura, Aisha Bakkar, Zuqaq al-Blat and Raouche, literally in the heart of the Lebanese capital. On Saturday morning, the Israeli Air Force once again bombed the same building it had struck the day before in Nabaa, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the north of the capital, killing four people.
The Israeli bombardments show no signs of stopping in the south either, particularly around Tyre, Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun, as well as in the east of the country in the Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on northern Israel in the Haifa area. Ground fighting also continues following Israel's decision to launch a ground invasion.
The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, accused Hezbollah of transporting military equipment in civilian trucks in the coastal areas of southern Lebanon. He warned that “all trucks traveling near the coast will put themselves in danger, given Hezbollah's positioning in the area.” The coastal artery is the country's most important highway, connecting the north to the south and passing right through Beirut. Targeting civilian trucks at this critical moment could mean a further squeeze on food supplies and basic necessities in the southern areas, which – despite the evacuation orders – are by no means empty.
The death toll in Lebanon from March 2 up to Saturday has climbed to 826 – the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health – and the number of wounded has surpassed 2,000. Over 100 children have been killed by the Israeli military.
The state and both local and international NGOs are feeling the immense pressure arising from the displacement emergency. Official figures record over 800,000 people who have been forced to abandon their homes and places of residence and who have received assistance in reception centers. Many others have found refuge with relatives and friends, or have managed to rent an apartment. An estimated one-fifth of the country – over one million people – is a direct victim of the displacement crisis. Tel Aviv has effectively ordered the forced evacuation of approximately 14 percent of the country: the Dahiyeh area (which alone is home to between 500,000 and 700,000 people) and the entirety of southern Lebanon, extending no longer just from the Litani River, but all the way from the Zahrani River, much further north and 40 kilometers from the border.
With the severe cuts to funding for the third sector implemented by Donald Trump on the very first day of his term on January 20, 2025, the funds available to stem the crisis this time around are drastically lower compared to the 2023 and 2024 emergencies. This represents an extremely high risk factor for the further destabilization of the country.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's proposal for direct talks with Israel has fallen on deaf ears. French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been expending a great deal of effort with little to show for it, has drafted a non-aggression pact between the two countries that would entail Beirut recognizing the state of Israel alongside a definitive demarcation of the border.
However, in recent days, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has made Israel's true intentions abundantly clear, and they point in a completely different direction: the order to extend and expand military operations in Lebanon has already been given.