The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed the deaths of 14 health workers in southern Lebanon, calling the incident “a tragic development in the growing crisis in the Middle East.”
In a statement posted on Twitter on Saturday, the WHO chief revealed that 12 medical staff, including doctors, paramedics and nurses, were killed during the attack on the Borj Kalauyeh primary health center late on Friday.
Lebanon’s health ministry confirmed that the victims were on duty at the time of the attack at the facility, which is a vital part of the country’s primary healthcare network.
According to the Director-General, this deadly incident came just hours before another attack, in which “two paramedics lost their lives in an attack on a health center in Al Sowana.”
Search and rescue teams are continuing their efforts at the scene to locate missing persons, while the ministry reported that at least one more health worker was injured in the Burj Kalauiyeh strike.
Chebreyesus stressed that these recent deaths are part of a broader trend, and said that these incidents “highlight the ongoing attack on Lebanon’s health system, which is vital to the population it serves.”
Condemning the violence, the ministry stressed that such actions are “contrary to international humanitarian law”, as medical personnel “should never be attacked or militarized.”
The magnitude of the crisis is reflected in WHO figures, which show that since March 2 the organization has confirmed 27 attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, resulting in 30 deaths and 35 injuries.
The attack on Burj Kalaouiyeh was part of a wider wave of Israeli attacks on Saturday morning, resulting in at least 20 deaths across the country, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NAA).
This surge in attacks coincides with fierce ground fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces along the Maroun al-Ras, Bint Jbeil and Aita al-Shaab axes.
Hezbollah’s military wing, the Islamic Resistance, announced that it had launched various operations, including rocket and suicide drone attacks, against Israeli targets in the Yara settlement and Khiyam.
Current tensions have escalated following a rocket attack by Hezbollah on March 2, the first since a November 2024 ceasefire. Following this attack, Israel has launched a series of airstrikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
In the wake of these events, Ghebreyesus called for “urgent action” to defuse the crisis and protect the health of people across the region, adding that “peace is the best medicine.”
