Lebanon: Attacked Less Than 10 Hours After Ceasefire Agreement – Doctors Without Borders Responds to Casualties Including Children

Less than 10 hours after the announcement of a regional ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran, at just past 2 PM on April 8 (local time), the Israeli military attacked multiple regions in Lebanon. Large-scale attacks damaged cities including the capital Beirut, Sidon, and Baalbek, and a large number of patients flooded multiple hospitals. According to the Ministry of Health, hundreds were killed or injured. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is responding to the injured and appealing for an end to attacks on civilians.

Christopher Stokes, MSF's Emergency Response Coordinator in Lebanon, states:

"Such indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas are never acceptable. MSF is responding to a large number of injured, including children, at Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut. People with shrapnel wounds from bombings and those with severe bleeding have been brought in. Some were transported having lost both legs. The number of patients continues to increase, and the scene is chaotic. We are also providing support to other hospitals."

On April 8, MSF also responded to numerous casualties at Jabal Amel Hospital in Tyre, southern Lebanon. One child lost six family members. Another person was injured hours after returning home, believing a ceasefire was in effect.

Medical staff are also injured and pushed to their limits. On April 7, Hiram Hospital in Tyre, which MSF supplied, was attacked by the Israeli military, and several medical staff were injured.

Stokes appeals:

"Attacks on civilians must stop. Medical facilities, medical staff, and patients must be protected. And repeated forced displacements are war crimes and must be stopped."