Outgoing Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad chairing a meeting at the Ministry's headquarters in Beirut, Dec. 23, 2024. (Credit: National News Agency)
Lebanon's outgoing Health Minister Firas Abiad met a delegation of pharmacists on Tuesday to discuss compensation and the reopening of pharmacies damaged in the war between Hezbollah and Israel, almost a month after the cease-fire between the two sides.
“The restoration of damaged and destroyed health facilities, including pharmacies, is one of the Ministry's priorities,” said Abiad during a meeting with the former president of the Order of Pharmacists, Ghassan al-Amine, and a delegation of pharmacists whose dispensaries were completely destroyed as a result of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon, as reported by the official National News Agency (NNA). They discussed the issue of compensation for pharmacists and the restoration of damaged pharmacies.
According to Abiad, the government is seeking “compensation as part of a comprehensive reconstruction plan”. “The Ministry of Health has begun a preliminary assessment of the damage to the health sector,” he stressed, noting that a "detailed" assessment would be carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organization. The World Bank is also carrying out a damage assessment, he added.
According to the Health Ministry, at least 4,047 people have been killed and 16,593 wounded in Lebanon since Oct. 8, 2023 as a result of Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
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