The BMA is extremely alarmed by the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, which the World Health Organization has said ‘left the country’s already strained health system struggling to cope’. 

The unrelenting and continuing attacks on healthcare in Lebanon since the re-escalation of strikes last month has killed more than 50 healthcare workers and injured 150 more. Such attacks are violations of medical neutrality and international humanitarian law.  

These recent attacks further weaken an already struggling healthcare workforce and system, which has been subjected to sustained attacks in the last few years, undermining patient care.

Attacks on healthcare do not just affect healthcare workers. Patients themselves are victims and their access to healthcare is extremely reduced when doctors, nurses, paramedics and first responders are targeted and killed, when medical infrastructure is destroyed and when hospitals face critical shortages in medical supplies as a result.  

Many patients have been internally displaced after being forcefully evacuated from their homes.

The recent evacuation orders covering southern areas of Beirut, which includes two main referral hospitals, will only worsen the situation and place healthcare workers and patients at serious risk of injury or death.

Safe access to healthcare is a fundamental right; healthcare workers, facilities and transports must always be protected during armed conflict. We call on all parties to the conflict to abide by their legal duties under international law, to stop attacks on healthcare and civilians and to ensure unimpeded humanitarian access.