From his office overlooking the border with Israel, Dr. Munis Kalaksh can hear the sound of artillery shells and air strikes landing on nearby Lebanese towns.
The increasing frequency of these attacks struck terror into the hearts of the workers in his small hospital and made them anxious.
Kalaksh said, “So far we have treated 51 people who were injured as a result of the bombing in the last month or so. 17 of them died or arrived dead.”
Fuel shortage
Kalaksh, director of Marjayoun Hospital in southern Lebanon, added that it serves about 300,000 people in the region. The hospital has 14 emergency beds and is struggling to function due to staff shortages and, most importantly, fuel shortages.
The hospital runs on generators for 20 hours a day, and must pay up to $20,000 a month for fuel.
Reuters quoted Kalaksh as saying, “None of this money comes from the government anymore.” He added, “We depend on the funds available in the hospital from one week to the next (…) and if the fuel runs out, the hospital will close.”
Economic collapse
Dozens of other public hospitals are also at risk. The economic collapse that Lebanon witnessed in 2019 made it barely able to adapt in peacetime.
Now, the escalating conflict on the southern border with Israel is pushing the healthcare sector into a new crisis. Doctors are concerned that the latest war in the Middle East may extend beyond the breaking point.
The fighting broke out on the Lebanese-Israeli border after Israel and Hamas entered into a war in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Hezbollah fired missiles at Israeli forces, while Israel bombed areas along the border in increasing attacks that raised fears of a widening scope of the conflict.
This is the bloodiest act of violence between Israel and Hezbollah since they fought a devastating war in 2006, which led to the killing of more than 70 Hezbollah fighters, ten Lebanese civilians, and ten Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Shells fall on Lebanese cities and villages on a daily basis.
Hospital strike
Marjayoun Hospital is no exception. Kalaksh says many of his employees have left for larger cities or foreign countries.
He added, “We had four or five surgeons in 2006, specialists in orthopedics and gynecology, but now we have one specialist in each field and they now work very long hours without any change.”
For its part, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said that its budget was no longer able to meet the needs. Trauma treatment supplies were hurriedly sent to government hospitals this week, anticipating the worst.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that it supplied hospitals, including Marjayoun, with fuel.
A surgeon at a private hospital in nearby Nabatieh said emergency aid would only reach this extent as the fighting intensified.
Dr. Musa Abbas added, “According to any hospital in Lebanon, we accommodate between 40 and 50 cases per week. Any hospital in Lebanon is not fully prepared.”
Kalaksh said that the Lebanese exodus after the financial crisis means at least that there are fewer people left for treatment. But the influx of patients would clog the narrow corridor that leads to the shared emergency room and reception area.
Kalaksh prepared and renovated the hospital in the months before the financial collapse, when government funds were available. He purchased dialysis machines and moved the dialysis room to an outbuilding to provide more space to treat patients.
Kalaksh worries that it will all disappear in an air strike, and watches in horror at the failure to protect medical staff in Gaza.
Hamas officials say that the Israeli bombing of Gaza led to the destruction of 25 hospitals in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The Lebanese authorities said that an Israeli shell hit a small hospital near the border last week.
2023-11-15 16:17:39
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