Israeli strikes injure patients at hospital in eastern Lebanon

By Wassim Seifeddine

BEIRUT (AA) - A government hospital in the Baalbek region of eastern Lebanon said Saturday that several patients were injured and it sustained severe damage from Israeli airstrikes near the hospital.

The Tamnin General Hospital said that "for the third consecutive time today, the aggressive Israeli enemy has targeted the area surrounding the hospital."

The strikes "resulted in significant and severe damage to the hospital, in addition to injuring many patients present in the hospital due to flying glass and shrapnel."

“While we condemn this aggression against healthcare institutions, we assure the enemy that its brutality will not deter us from continuing our path,” it added.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 others and displacing more than 1.34 million.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed nearly 42,200 victims, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala