LONDON: As Israeli airstrikes and ground operations drive hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, hospitals and aid groups say they are racing to set up clinics and supply chains to help displaced families.
The strain is already visible on the frontlines of care. “It is a hard day,” Dr. Mohamad Abdallah, CEO of Rayak Hospital in Bekaa, told Arab News on March 6. “All the surrounding (areas) were warned to leave their houses, which caused shortage of staff and panic in the hospital.”
Given the scale and short notice of Israeli evacuation orders, issued on March 2, Abdallah said some communities could not make it out before the bombing began. “We are dealing with many injuries and death unfortunately,” he said.
“There is a village where people could not evacuate, and it was hit by Israeli airstrikes, and casualties, including martyrs and injuries, started pouring into the hospital.” After midnight, in the early hours of March 7, the hospital received the bodies of 19 civilians.
Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate Beirut’s southern suburbs, Bekaa, and the entire area south of the Litani River — directives that Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called “blanket displacement orders.”
