Less than 10 hours after the announcement of a regional ceasefire to the Middle East escalation of conflict, Israeli forces conducted a large-scale attack across Lebanon, with airstrikes hitting multiple locations, including major cities.
According to the Ministry of Public Health, hundreds of people have been killed and injured, and hospitals across the country report mass casualties. These indiscriminate attacks have struck residential areas heavily, killing and injuring civilians — making clear that despite the ceasefire announcement, attacks on Lebanon continue.
Christopher Stokes, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières' (MSF) emergency coordinator in Lebanon, said today:
“A little after 2 p.m., Israeli forces struck multiple cities and towns across Lebanon — less than 10 hours after the announcement of a regional ceasefire.
"This large-scale attack by Israeli forces across Lebanon has struck multiple locations, including in the cities of Beirut, Saida, and Baalbek, with reports of high influxes of patients in multiple hospitals.
"These indiscriminate strikes on densely populated areas are completely unacceptable.
"Our teams are responding to mass influxes of injured patients, including children, at Rafik Hariri Public Hospital in Beirut. Patients are arriving with shrapnel injuries and heavy bleeding. One patient arrived at the hospital having lost both legs. The situation is chaotic as more people are brought in.
"Earlier this morning, MSF teams in the Jabal Amel Hospital in Sour [also known as Tyre], southern Lebanon, responded to an influx of injured patients, including one child who lost six members of her family. Another one of the families brought in had returned home a few hours before being injured, thinking there was a ceasefire in place.
"At the same time, health care staff are being injured and pushed to exhaustion: Last night the Hiram Hospital, also in Sour — where MSF has provided donations — was struck by Israeli forces, injuring multiple health care workers.
"Continuous attacks on civilians must stop. Health care facilities, staff, and patients need to be protected. The repeated forcible displacement of people — a war crime — needs to stop.
"MSF teams are mobilizing and sending more support to other hospitals in impacted areas."
