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IDF Strikes on Over 100 Medical Facilities in Lebanon Kill 40 Medical Workers, Health Ministry Says
- Haaretz, The Associated Press, Reuters
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Healthcare workers told The Guardian that Israel is deliberately targeting medical facilities, and as such, emergency teams cannot visit family or friends and must sleep in ambulances parked far away from each other, so that if there is a strike, it does not kill all the staff
Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon have targeted at least 128 medical facilities and ambulances, and killed at least 40 medical workers, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported on Saturday.
According to the ministry, more than 100 medical personnel have been wounded in Lebanon since March 2.
Healthcare workers and Lebanese officials told The Guardian that Israel is deliberately targeting medical facilities in a systematic effort to render these areas unusable or uninhabitable. They say Israel is using a "double-tap" tactic: an initial strike, followed by a pause allowing medical teams to reach the site, and then a second strike.
The IDF claimed that Hezbollah is using ambulances for military purposes and told The Guardian last week that Israeli operations comply with international law.
The IDF added that most strikes on medical facilities were directed at the Hezbollah-affiliated "Islamic Health Association" (IHA), which operates in coordination with the Lebanese health ministry. The IDF has also struck Lebanon's civil defence service, Red Cross, a local healthcare charity and the health service affiliated with the Amal movement, a Shi'ite party and militia that grew in popularity during the first Lebanese Civil War.
About two weeks ago, an IDF strike destroyed the IHA emergency center in the village of Zifta in southern Lebanon. Two medical workers were killed, and another was left paralyzed.
Hussein Moshawrab, the center's director, told The Guardian that he had spoken with them shortly before the attack. "I did a video call with them at iftar, because we can't all gather due to the danger of being struck. The next time I saw them was when they were under the rubble," he said. The building also housed a local police station.
Because of the repeated attacks, the number of staff on paramedic teams has been reduced from three to two. The Guardian reported that emergency teams are also prohibited from visiting family or friends during work and must maintain distance from other staff, sleeping in ambulances parked far away from each other, so that if there is a strike, it does not kill everyone.
"We try not to behave unusually, not do anything out of the ordinary, and remain as conspicuous as possible to the drone above, so that it's clear that you're a medic and there's no excuse to hit us," medical worker Ali Nasr al-Din told the Guardian. "You can take as many precautions as you want, but if in the end, the other party doesn't care about ethics, it won't matter," he added.
Dr. Hassan Wazni, who heads the Nabatieh governmental hospital, told the Guardian that the current round against Israel is harsher. "We are getting less wounded people coming in, and more already dead."
Nearly 230 medical workers were killed by Israel during the 2024 war with Lebanon.
Around 1,024 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2, according to Lebanese authorities. The World Health Organization and Lebanese health authorities said more than 100 of those killed were children.
The IDF said that it killed four Hezbollah operatives during a ground offensive in southern Lebanon overnight into Saturday. The army added that it "struck a number of Hezbollah headquarters" in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot offered to facilitate direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, shortly before departing for a visit to Israel on Friday.
"To end the war, it will be necessary sooner or later to negotiate an agreement, as we did with our American partners, to end the previous conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024. The Lebanese government has demonstrated its unprecedented openness to direct, high-level discussions with Israel," Barrot said.
"This is a historic opportunity, which I have called on my Israeli interlocutors to seize," he added, calling for Lebanon to establish "the state's monopoly on weapons, which alone must protect all communities in Lebanon, including and especially the Shi'ite community."
Barrot called for "a new framework for Lebanese-Israeli relations, which will put an end to the state of war between the two countries, delimit the land borders once and for all and chart a path towards shared peace and security for both countries." The foreign minister said he "reiterated to all my interlocutors, both Israeli and Lebanese, France's readiness to facilitate such discussions, in close collaboration with our American partners."
Since the beginning of the war, more than 2,000 targets have been attacked in Lebanon, an Israeli army spokesman announced on Friday.
(c) 2026, Haaretz