LEILA FADEL, HOST:
With Israel's war with Hezbollah intensifying, more than a fifth of the population of Lebanon is now displaced. Hospitals are treating thousands of people that have been wounded in Israeli strikes in the last few weeks. Meanwhile, upward of 2,300 people have been killed, and there are no signs of this violence ending. Hezbollah now says it will begin a new and escalating phase of this war with Israel. In the last year, 63 people have been killed by Hezbollah in northern Israel as Israel continues its incursions in the south of Lebanon and intense airstrikes across the country.
We're joined now by Lebanon's health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad. Good morning. Thanks for being on the program.
FIRASS ABIAD: Good morning. Thank you for having me.
FADEL: I want to start with the medical infrastructure. I mean, does Lebanon have the infrastructure it needs to deal with the level of wounded in need right now?
ABIAD: Well, as you know, Lebanon's health sector is quite developed.
FADEL: Yeah.
ABIAD: But in the last couple of years have been quite rough. And now with this conflict that is ongoing in the region, the health sector up till now have really performed well. It has been able to cope with the escalation and the needs. Now we've reached almost in excess of 11,000 wounded. Also, we have the large number of displaced. We're talking about 1.2 million internal displaced population. And yesterday, Lebanon reported the first cholera case we've had, you know, since the outbreak in 2022. Now, add to all of that, we've also been having to deal with targeting of healthcare workers and healthcare institutions.
FADEL: You're saying that medical staff is being targeted and medical facilities...
ABIAD: Yes.
FADEL: ...Are being targeted.
ABIAD: Yeah. So up till now, we have excess of 150 healthcare workers or first responders who have been killed. We have 13 hospitals that have been targeted and been out of service completely or partially. And we have around 100 medical posts or clinics that also have been affected by the ongoing conflict. Now, why do I say that they are being targeted?
FADEL: Yeah.
ABIAD: Because especially first responders, these things happened when they were responding to incidents. And it's very difficult to say that this was, you know, done by mistake.
FADEL: You mentioned the 1.2 million displaced. It's beginning to get cold. It was raining last night in Beirut. Where are over 1.2 million displaced people sleeping? And how is the state able to respond?
ABIAD: So when there was this mass displacement after a particular day of indiscriminate attacks, where we had an excess of 600 people killed in a single day, people just left all of these areas. And especially initially, we had a lot of people actually sleeping on the streets, whether it is in Beirut, whether it's in the mountains, whether - any place they could just find a place to lie down. A lot of them now have been moved into shelters. We have over 1,200 shelters that are hosting the equivalent of almost 300,000 individuals. The rest are either with families, with friends. They've rented apartments, you know, depending on their situation. Also, remembering that we are passing through a very severe financial crisis, so a lot of people are quite financially vulnerable.
FADEL: Our latest number that we have from the ministry is 2,300 or just over 2,300 people killed. Is that correct?
ABIAD: Yes. It's now around, I think, almost 2,400 people who have been killed.
FADEL: And how many of those nearly 2,400 people are civilians?
ABIAD: Well, the vast majority of those people have been civilians. Now, remembering, you know, that when Israel attacks Hezbollah, a lot of this is not happening on battlefields. Also, you know, recently, we have been seeing direct attacks on shelters. So there has been - actually, the vast majority of the people who have been killed in the past two weeks have been women and children in shelters - crowded shelters.
FADEL: Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world, quote, "cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza," unquote. How concerned are you that the war is headed in that direction?
ABIAD: I am very much concerned, and the reason is because we are seeing a lot of what happened in Gaza is being repeated in Lebanon, whether, for example, targeting of healthcare facilities or personnel or targeting of civilians. Now, I understand that people, you know, might contest or say, these are - you know, give excuses. But unfortunately, what we are seeing is an unacceptable level of civilian injuries, unacceptable level of healthcare facility and worker, you know, injuries. And therefore, it's only logical to think that without any clear end to this conflict and only escalation options on the table, that the course of events will follow what we have seen in Gaza.
FADEL: That's Lebanon's health minister, Dr. Firass Abiad. Thank you for your time.
ABIAD: Thank you, Leila.
FADEL: We reached out to the Israeli military about the accusation that it's targeting medical staff and facilities. So far, we haven't heard back. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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