Lebanese Red Cross rescuers at the site of an Israeli strike in Aito, Northern Lebanon, on Oct. 14, 2024. (Credit: Fathi al-Masri/AFP)
The Health Ministry published a detailed and updated report on Thursday regarding Israeli attacks on the health sector during the war in Lebanon.
This report, broken down by villages, was based on data collected from Oct. 8, 2023, to Jan. 27, 2025, while Israeli army strikes and shootings continued in south Lebanon since the cease-fire agreement came into effect at the end of November, intended to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Supposed to last 60 days, the cease-fire deadline was extended by three weeks at the request of the Israelis.
The report specifically lists the strikes targeting various types of establishments affiliated with the health sector: hospitals, primary care centers, as well as local centers of rescue associations, in addition to those targeting vehicles used by medical staff and rescuers.
223 caregivers and rescuers killed in total
In its introduction, the report emphasizes that the publication of these figures was "a tribute to the memory of caregivers who sacrificed their lives while carrying out their mission of care and rescue," aiming to "demand justice" for these victims and to ensure that these "violations of international humanitarian law are neither ignored nor forgotten nor repeated."
During a press conference held on Dec. 4, Caretaker Health Minister Firas Abiad said that among the 4,047 deaths recorded in Lebanon until then, 223 were health personnel, in addition to 330 injured.
This report refines these general figures by specifying that out of the 368 Israeli attacks recorded in total, 237 were conducted against rescue centers and vehicles, 68 against hospitals, and 63 against primary care centers.
Of the 38 hospital centers affected, the governmental hospital of Tebnin (Bint Jbeil) was the most targeted, having seen at least 10 strikes.
The report also said that all these attacks were recorded in south Lebanon, in the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, the three areas that were predominantly targeted by Israeli army airstrikes.
Most of them concentrate on four of the five districts of south Lebanon, namely Bint Jbeil, Marjayoun, Nabatieh and Sour, which alone account for nearly 80 percent of the recorded attacks.
The first strike against rescuers was recorded on Nov. 5, 2023, against an ambulance in Jibbein (Sour), while the one on a hospital establishment dates back to May 27, 2024, against Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil.
Below is the detailed report by category:
Regarding rescue associations:
Number of attacks: 237
Number of deaths: 201
Number of injured: 253
Number of centers targeted: 67
Number of ambulances targeted: 177
Number of firefighting trucks targeted: 59
Number of rescue vehicles targeted: 18
Hospitals:
Number of attacks against hospitals: 68
Number of hospitals targeted: 38
Number of hospitals closed: 8
Number of hospitals partially operational: 7
Number of hospitals still forcibly closed: 2
Number of deaths: 16
Number of injured: 74
Number of vehicles damaged: 25
Primary health care centers:
Number of attacks against centers: 63
Number of centers forcibly closed: 58
Number of centers completely destroyed: 10
Number of centers partially destroyed: 50