Doctors recall tragic night in Beirut's southern suburbs after Israeli strike on Hezbollah

The death toll from the overnight attacks is expected to rise

Jihad Saadeh, director of Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut, and Fadi Sinan, director general of the Ministry of Health, tour wards at the hospital set up to treat people injured in the strikShow more

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As echoes of blasts rang across Beirut on Friday and staff at Rafik Hariri hospital heard news of a huge Israeli air strike in the south of the city, they scrambled to prepare for what they imagined would be a mass casualty event.

But Fathallah Fattouh, head of the emergency room at the largest public hospital in Lebanon, located on the outskirts of southern Beirut – said he didn’t encounter many complicated medical cases.

Not because the attacks, which he described as “a shock no one expected,” weren’t violent.

“Most of them are dead, or still buried under the rubble,” he said. The rest had minor injuries, he added.

Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike in the area of Dahieh on Friday, levelling several residential buildings in the process. The Ministry of Health initially reported 11 victims and 108 injuries from Israeli attacks on Friday, but doctors say the death toll is expected to rise dramatically.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported a death toll of 1,640 since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on October 8, including 104 children and 194 women. The number of injured has reached 8,408. Between September 16 and September 27, the ministry reported 1,030 killed in Israeli strikes, including 56 women and 87 children, while 6,352 people were injured.

“It was a nightmarish evening,” a nurse said to Mr Fattouh by way of greeting. As he speaks from the emergency room, the medical team continues to care for several wounded, one of whom has an inflamed face wrapped in white gauze.

Throughout the night, the medical team witnessed plumes of smoke billowing over nearby areas as Israel launched a new series of attacks on the city's south. Panicked residents rushed to the hospital car park seeking refuge as thousands fled the area, gathering in squares, parks and sidewalks.

Families also came to check if their loved ones had been found. One of the hospital employees showed pictures of some of the corpses, including a child with a completely swollen face. He said the family had identified the body and would take the death certificate.

“It’s a disaster for all Lebanese,” Mr Fattouh said.

From his office, hospital director Jihad Saadeh told The National that his facility has been trained to receive mass casualties since the war in Gaza began.

For almost a year, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in a war of attrition when the group started low-intensity attacks across the border a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel. But on Monday, Israel significantly escalated the conflict by launching a massive aerial campaign on several regions in Lebanon, killing at least 800 people, among them women, children, and rescue workers.

Lebanon's Health Minister told The National on Thursday that Israel has been attacking emergency crews and health workers since the beginning of its campaign, considerably undermining the emergency response.

Forty-one healthcare workers have been killed since the beginning of the conflict, the Ministry of Health announced on Saturday. On Friday, two strikes targeted medical facilities in Deir Syrian and Taybeh, resulting in the deaths of seven healthcare workers.

Mr Saadeh said that the hospital opened a unit specifically to treat patients from the war, as hospitals in Dahieh are transferring more patients. “The overnight strikes were [so] violent that several hospitals in Dahiyeh have had to close, and their staff had to evacuate,” he said.

On Friday, the health ministry called on hospitals in Beirut and surrounding areas unaffected by the war to prepare for patients from hospitals in the southern suburbs. Rafik Hariri University Hospital has received around 20 of these patients.

Mr Saadeh said most of the casualties admitted to the hospital were women. “Of course, as humans, it’s impacting us … It reminds us of the civil war and the 2006 war,” he said.

“The situation is heading to a crazy place,” he said. At the same time, Israel announced Nasrallah's assassination.