Lebanon’s crisis-hit health system is now preparing for a wider war with Israel, minister says

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s crisis-hit health system is now bracing for the possibility of a broader, more devastating conflict with Israel, the country’s health minister told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

Israel’s military and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militant group negotiated strikes since the start of the current war in Gaza, but tensions have increased since an Israeli attack on a Beirut suburb killed a top Hezbollah commander last month. Hezbollah promised to retaliate.

Lebanon’s interim government, in the midst of diplomatic de-escalation maneuvers, is trying to prepare for the worst with a tattered budget, a deeply divided parliament and no president.

“The Lebanese health system has had to adapt to multiple crises,” said interim Health Minister Firas Abiad. Healthcare facilities have cut costs by keeping inventory to a minimum, leaving little backup for emergencies, he said. Now, inventory has been accumulated for four months of critical supplies.

“We hope that all the efforts we are making to prepare for this emergency will be wasted” and that a wider war will be avoided, Abiad said.

Inside Gaza, the health system has been decimated. Abiad said Lebanese health authorities take the possibility of hospitals being targeted in a wider conflict “very seriously”.

Already, he said, nearly two dozen paramedics and healthcare workers in southern Lebanon have been killed in Israeli attacks. They include paramedics from Hezbollah-affiliated medical groups and allied groups that have filled gaps in areas with limited state services.

Israeli strikes have reached deeper into Lebanon in recent weeks, and sonic booms from military jets have rocked Beirut. Much of the border region is in rubble.

The Mediterranean country’s health sector has already been recognized as one of the best in the region. But Lebanon faced worsened crises since 2019, including an inspector that followed decades of corruption and mismanagement. Other challenges include the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 crisis Beirut port explosion that damaged or destroyed essential health infrastructure and the decrease in international aid to help Lebanon host more than 1 million Syrian refugees.

Lebanese hospitals in 2021 were at their limit, can barely keep the lights on and has few medications.

Abiad said the health sector has demonstrated resilience before and hopes it will do so again.

“During the explosion (at the port), the system was able to absorb an excess of 6,000 casualties in a matter of 12 hours,” he said. “There is, I would say, a determination within our health system to provide the necessary care to all the people who need it.”

But resilience may not be enough for the troubled country and its 6 million people. The financial crisis has left government agencies indebted to humanitarian organizations for cash injections and supplies.

Last week, the Ministry of Health received 32 tons of emergency medical aid from the World Health Organization. But UN agencies and other humanitarian groups have had to reallocate funds from existing work to provide aid to around 100,000 people who have fled the southern Lebanon since the start of the current war in Gaza.

Abiad said some issues are beyond the ministry’s control, including securing fuel for electricity and gasoline for ambulances, as well as supporting the nearly 800,000 UN-registered Syrian refugees in the country.

Health resources are not sufficient for refugees in particular, Abiad said: “The international community really has to exert its influence and contribute on this specific issue.”