Displaced Lebanese cope with cold as well as hunger
Thousands of people are flowing into the mountainous Christian town of Deir al-Ahmar in eastern Lebanon as Israel’s bombardment continues. Temperatures are dropping to 6 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight and supplies in the town are getting tight.
“If we flee the bombing, are we meant to die of cold?” Suzanne Qassem, a mother of two at a displacement centre in the city, whose home in Buday has been destroyed, told the Reuters news agency.
“I’m sick, I’ve been taking medicine for a week and I’m still coughing … If my son gets sick, am I going to be able to get him medicine?”
In one school now serving as a shelter, aid groups that once served two meals have cut breakfast to feed more at lunch.
“At night, we’re shaking. I put my mattress up next to my daughter and tell her to hug me so that we can keep warm. But we’re not keeping warm,” said another displaced woman, Neyfe Mazloum, 69.
Israel carried out 55 attacks on health workers, facilities in Lebanon: WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) is deeply concerned about rising Israeli attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in Lebanon, according to the UN health agency’s Margaret Harris.
Harris said at a UN news conference that while 55 attacks have been verified, the actual number of incidents is likely to be significantly higher.
At least 132 healthcare workers have been killed in Lebanon while on duty, a clear violation of international law, according to Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization.
“They go to work every day to save lives. They do not go to work to lose their lives, but they have been caught up in a conflict where there seems to be no concern about attacking health facilities,” Harris told Al Jazeera, speaking from Hong Kong. “It’s very clear, under international humanitarian law, healthcare is not a target.”
The Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon is reporting much higher numbers of losses of healthcare workers because many of the health workers have been killed or injured while at home, or going to and from work, she added.
“This was a healthcare system that couldn’t afford to lose one healthcare worker. They didn’t have enough healthcare workers before this conflict began, the economic circumstances meant that they were very much underserved, and it was a healthcare system that was struggling,” the WHO spokesperson said.
“And now they’ve got mass casualties. They’ve got mass needs. There’s overwhelming displacement. There’s increasing risk of outbreaks. We’ve got cholera … the attacks on healthcare are adding to the misery.”
Israeli warplane strikes eastern Lebanon’s Baalbek city
An Israeli air attack targeted the eastern city of Baalbek, following heavy air raids on the area in recent days, according to the official National News Agency (NNA). Israeli “enemy aircraft launched a raid on the Zahraa neighbourhood in the city of Baalbek,” home to ancient Roman ruins designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, NNA said.
Israeli attacks put Lebanon heritage sites ‘in deep peril’: UN envoy
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, has said the country’s cultural heritage was being endangered by Israeli strikes on the ancient Lebanese cities of Tyre and Baalbek, home to UNESCO-designated Roman ruins.
“Ancient Phoenician cities steeped in history are in deep peril of being left in ruins,” she said in a social media post, adding that “Lebanon’s cultural heritage must not become yet another casualty in this devastating conflict.”
