Extra well being staff and sufferers have been killed proportionally in Lebanon than in Ukraine and Gaza
22 November 2024, Beirut, Lebanon – Since 7 October 2023, 47% of assaults on well being care – 65 out of 137 – have confirmed deadly to not less than one well being employee or affected person in Lebanon, as of 21 November 2024.
This can be a larger proportion than in any energetic battle right this moment throughout the globe – with almost half of all assaults on well being inflicting the demise of a well being employee.
Compared, the worldwide common is 13.3%, primarily based on the SSA’s figures from 13 international locations or territories that reported assaults in the identical interval, 7 October 2023 – 18 November 2024 – amongst them Ukraine, Sudan and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Within the case of oPt, 9.6% of the full variety of incidents has resulted within the demise of not less than one medical skilled or affected person.
In line with SSA, 226 well being staff and sufferers had been killed in Lebanon and 199 injured between 7 October 2023 and 18 November 2024.
In the identical interval, the SSA registered a mixed complete of 1401 assaults on well being in oPt, Lebanon and Israel – 1196 in oPt, 137 in Lebanon and 68 in Israel.
Civilian well being care has particular safety
“These figures reveal but once more an especially worrying sample. It’s unequivocal – depriving civilians of entry to lifesaving care and concentrating on well being suppliers is a breach of worldwide humanitarian legislation. The legislation prohibits using well being amenities for army functions – and even when that’s the case, stringent circumstances to taking motion towards them apply, together with an obligation to warn and to attend after warning,” mentioned WHO Consultant in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar.
Worldwide humanitarian legislation states that well being staff and amenities ought to at all times be protected in armed conflicts and by no means attacked. Well being amenities should not be used for army functions, and there ought to be accountability for the misuse of well being amenities.
“There must be penalties for not abiding by worldwide legislation, and the ideas of precaution, distinction and proportionality ought to at all times be adhered to. It’s been mentioned earlier than, indiscriminate assaults on well being care are a violation of human rights and worldwide legislation that can’t grow to be the brand new regular, not in Gaza, not in Lebanon, nowhere,” mentioned WHO Regional Director for the Jap Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy.
Nearly all of incidents in Lebanon influence well being staff
The bulk (68%) of incidents in Lebanon registered by the SSA impacted well being personnel, a sample seen repeatedly in the previous few years, together with in Gaza up to now 12 months. In Lebanon, roughly 63% affected well being transport and 26% affected well being amenities.
Assaults on well being care hit twice. First, when well being staff lose their lives or when a well being centre is obliterated, and once more within the following weeks and months when the injured can’t be handled, those that are depending on common care don’t obtain it and when youngsters can’t be immunized.
“Casualty numbers amongst well being staff of this scope would debilitate any nation, not simply Lebanon. However what the numbers alone can not convey is the long-term influence, the therapies for well being circumstances missed, girls and ladies prevented from accessing maternal, sexual and reproductive well being providers, undiagnosed treatable ailments and, finally, the lives misplaced due to the absence of well being care. That’s the influence that’s onerous to quantify,” mentioned Dr Abubakar.
1 in 10 hospitals in Lebanon instantly impacted
The higher the blow to the well being workforce, the weaker the longer-term skill of a rustic to get well from a disaster and ship well being care in a post-conflict setting.
Lebanon is a decrease middle-income nation with a reasonably superior well being system that’s been hit onerous by a number of crises lately. After hostilities in Lebanon escalated in September 2024, the rising variety of assaults on well being have triggered additional pressure on an already over-burdened system.
Right this moment, the nation’s well being system is beneath excessive duress, with 15 out of 153 hospitals having ceased to function, or solely partially functioning. Nabatieh, for instance, one in every of Lebanon’s 8 governorates, has misplaced 40% of its hospital mattress capability.
“Assaults on well being care of this scale cripple a well being system when these whose lives depend upon it want it essentially the most. Past the lack of life, the demise of well being staff is a lack of years of funding and a vital useful resource to a fragile nation going ahead,” Dr Balkhy concluded.
Thus far this 12 months, between 1 January 2024 and 18 November 2024, a complete of 1246 assaults on well being care had been registered globally, in 13 international locations or territories, killing 730 well being staff and sufferers and injuring 1255.
The Surveillance System for Assaults on Well being Care (SSA), established in 2017 by the World Well being Group, is an impartial world monitoring mechanism whose purpose is to gather dependable information on assaults on well being care and to then establish patterns of violence that inform danger discount and resilience measures in order that well being care is protected. The SSA additionally offers an proof base for advocacy towards assaults on well being care.
