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LEBANON WAR

Mohammad Khazaal, Lebanese expatriate doctor who stayed in the Bekaa to 'fight without weapons'

As an intern in a hospital near Paris, 28-year-old Dr. Mohammad Khazaal is trying to fill the medical void in Lebanon, in an area shelled by the Israeli air force on a voluntary basis.

Mohammad Khazaal, Lebanese expatriate doctor who stayed in the Bekaa to 'fight without weapons'

Mohammad Khazaal treating a young boy during one of his tours in the northern Bekaa. (Credit: Mohammad Khazaal)

Between power cuts, which have become even more frequent recently, Dr. Mohammad Khazaal told us about his latest tour. At the wheel of his car, he has been criss-crossing the northern Bekaa for almost a month, helping the many people wounded by Israeli bombardments.

A member of the internal medicine department at the Avicenne hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, the native of Labweh, near Ras Baalbeck, had returned home for a few weeks this summer, despite the war between Hezbollah and Israel since Oct. 8, 2023. But when the Israeli escalation began in mid-September, leaving his family to return to his hospital in Paris quickly became an inconceivable choice, as four hospitals — three in south Lebanon and one in Beirut's southern suburbs — had already been taken out of service.

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Since then, the young doctor has been on the move every day, following Israeli raids to try and heal wounds in a region normally considered a medical desert. Despite financial aid from the European Lebanese Medical Society (ELMS), the lack of supplies of medicines and medical equipment further complicates a mission that already involves many risks: According to our count, more than 70 Lebanese first-aiders and firefighters have been killed in Israeli strikes targeting hospitals and ambulances after a year of war.

Khazaal told L'Orient-Le Jour about his experience as a war doctor.

What motivated your decision not to return to France to pursue your work and studies, but to stay in Lebanon?

When the escalation began and the dead and wounded poured in by the hundreds around my home, I couldn't, as a doctor, leave my family and go back to France. The idea of making diagnoses in my hospital in Bobigny while my country was suffering was unbearable. On a personal level, it was also impossible for me to leave my family. There's no safe zone here: If my family has to die, I'll die with them.

What has the situation been like in the northern Bekaa over the last few days?

It's been very difficult since the escalation began. Every day there are new casualties from the bombardments, which never stop. We feel overwhelmed and isolated, as it's getting harder and harder to get supplies.

Rescue workers at the site of a bombed building near al-Ain, in the northern Bekaa. (Credit: Mohammad Khazaal)

Today, I saw eight patients, all women. As a Lebanese, it's morally hard to see my country being bombed every day, but it's also hard as a doctor because, while I try to help as much as I can, it's as if I'm trying to fight without weapons. I'm on my own.

How do you organize your rounds, and how do you go about choosing the places you visit?

The patients I treat come from the villages around Labweh, where I live. I intervene by word-of-mouth. People communicate with each other, and many of them now know that there's a doctor nearby who can come to their home and do it for free. Usually, all I have to do is wait for someone to contact me directly by phone.

I don't go all over the Bekaa, but stay in the area around Ras Baalbeck, where there's a center for displaced people that I often visit. I avoid going too far because the roads are very dangerous, and the bombings are so random that it's impossible to know whether a particular area might be hit when you get there.

What types of injuries do you have to treat the most?

Most of the time, I treat injuries caused by shrapnel thrown up by explosions. This gives rise to a lot of head injuries, wounds, fractures and burns, which require surgery and even amputations.

A man wounded in the leg. (Credit: Mohammad Khazaal)

The most frustrating thing is when we have to treat patients who end up with complications due to a lack of care and follow-up: Just today, I had to treat an infected wound because the person had not received preventive anticoagulants, as is necessary when immobilizing a lower limb. With the lack of time and resources, dressings are not always done properly, or are left on too long before being changed. It's the first time I've had to deal with this kind of thing. I've never seen anything like it in France.

What is the profile of these injured people?

The majority are women. The other day, I was looking after a mother who was hanging out her washing on her balcony when stone shrapnel hit her head from the neighboring house that was bombed at the same time. Of course, there are lots of children too. I don't want to play politics, but I can assure you that all those I've treated are civilians. I know them, they have nothing to do with Hezbollah or any other political party. A few days ago in Labweh, a shopkeeper I knew was targeted as he came to collect fruit and vegetables with his pick-up. You can see how random these strikes are.

A man with a wounded arm. (Credit: Mohammad Khazaal)

How is the situation when it comes to equipment replenishment?

Medical supplies are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, as pharmacies have already run out of stock. I recently received 200 euros from the ELMS, the association I belong to, but I had to go around all the pharmacies in the region to find what I needed.

We are working with the Health Ministry to coordinate the arrival of equipment and medicine distributors. But many are unable to get up to the Bekaa because of the bombings. Given the number of attacks on ambulances, everyone is afraid of being targeted on the way.

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Would you like to pass on a concluding message?

In this kind of situation, it's our duty as doctors to mobilize as much as possible. There are many Lebanese expatriate doctors who can't come on site, of course, but who have other ways of helping, such as offering remote consultations, sending basic equipment (dressings, medicines, Betadine) or donating money to enable us to buy what we need locally.

If you wish, you can contribute to our fundraising campaign. The money raised helps us at the ELMS to buy equipment, and also helps the paramedics we work with. Our country needs us. We need it now.

This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour.

Between power cuts, which have become even more frequent recently, Dr. Mohammad Khazaal told us about his latest tour. At the wheel of his car, he has been criss-crossing the northern Bekaa for almost a month, helping the many people wounded by Israeli bombardments.A member of the internal medicine department at the Avicenne hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, the native of...