BEIRUT: Officials at a Lebanese hospital have drafted in a private security firm to protect staff in the wake of several gun attacks.
Nurses, doctors, and administration workers at the Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut medical facility have been subjected to a series of armed assaults.
The attackers included a relative trying to force hospital staff to admit a patient, another angry over a patient’s death in the emergency department, and one person attempting to leave without paying a bill.
In one recent incident, gunmen known to staff threatened emergency room nurses, and forced two doctors to disconnect medical equipment from a patient before removing them from the hospital.
In mid-July, the owner and director of the Doctors’ Hospital in Bekaa, Dr. Khaled Al-Khatib, suffered head injuries and a broken arm after being set upon.
The Syndicate of Hospital Owners said at the time that, “the denunciations and condemnations are no longer sufficient to prevent the recurrence of these incidents in hospitals in all Lebanese regions without control or accountability. This has led to the vulnerability of hospitals and their staff.”
The syndicate called on authorities to provide protection for hospital workers who continued to work despite “difficult living pressures,” and urged stiff penalties on aggressors.
The head of Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut, Faisal Sinno, told Arab News: “We decided to contract with a private security company and stipulated that its members do not use weapons on the hospital campus.
“We sought help from army intelligence, and they pursued the gunmen. We have no choice but to seek the help of the state because we cannot rely on self-security.
“What happens here happens all the time, but we hope now that we don’t face new attacks,” he said.
Sinno added: “One of the gunmen went so far as to enter the hospital and stand infront of the cashier’s office to tell patients’ families that he could get them a discount on the amount due, on the condition that he shared some of what they saved. The gunman forced the cashier to make a discount on the bill.
“The hospital receives about 50 patients a month who need partial or full assistance. We cover the cost of hospitalization for those in actual need through donations made by Lebanese people inside and outside Lebanon.
“The medical and nursing staff are affected by this type of intimidation, and some want to leave the hospital. However, the majority are used to these types of aggressors.
“We have gone through wars and crises, and we have survived. The society in which we live needs our services. We have Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian patients. We are trying to adjust.”
Head of the private hospitals syndicate, Suleiman Haroun, noted that there were 130 hospitals in Lebanon, and some had merged in a bid to reduce costs.
He said: “The primary cause of the attacks on hospitals, according to our analysis, is that these gunmen want priority to be given to particular patients. They start screaming and the situation may escalate into beatings and even shooting.
“We cannot do anything with these people. The Internal Security Forces cannot provide security for all hospitals, so we resort to private security. However, we refuse to have armed private security personnel, otherwise, hospitals will turn into battle fronts.
“Most hospitals have begun to rely on male nurses and doctors in emergency rooms at night.”
Lebanon’s grand mufti, Sheikh Abdellatif Derian, visited Makassed hospital after the attacks. He said: “Attacking the dignity of any doctor, nurse, or administrative employee on the hospital campus is an attack on every one of us. Let us ensure the sanctity of our Islamic and national institutions.”
Lebanese hospital hires private security to protect staff after spate of gun attacks
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Lebanese hospital hires private security to protect staff after spate of gun attacks
- Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut medical facility have been subjected to a series of armed assaults
- The attackers included a relative trying to force hospital staff to admit a patient, another angry over a patient’s death in the emergency department
US, France, Germany, UK urge ‘de-escalation’ in Syria: joint statement
WASHINGTON: The United States and its allies France, Germany and Britain called Sunday for “de-escalation” in Syria and urged in a joint statement for the protection of civilians and infrastructure.
“The current escalation only underscores the urgent need for a Syrian-led political solution to the conflict, in line with UNSCR 2254,” read a statement issued by the US State Department, referencing the 2015 UN resolution that endorsed a peace process in Syria.
Britain ups Gaza aid ahead of donor conference
- Aid organizations accuse Israel of preventing trucks from entering Gaza in large enough numbers to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory
LONDON: Britain will provide an additional 19 million pounds ($24 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the international development minister said Monday, calling for Israel to give greater access ahead of a key conference on the conflict.
“Gazans are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter,” the minister, Anneliese Dodds, said in a statement as she headed for a three-day visit to the region, including an international conference in Cairo Monday on the Gaza Strip’s aid needs.
“The Cairo conference will be an opportunity to get leading voices in one room and put forward real-world solutions to the humanitarian crisis,” she added.
“Israel must immediately act to ensure unimpeded aid access to Gaza.”
Aid organizations accuse Israel of preventing trucks from entering Gaza in large enough numbers to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory.
The new UK funding will be split into 12 million pounds for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP), and seven million pounds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the statement said.
UNRWA announced Sunday it had halted the delivery of aid through the key Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza because of safety fears, saying the situation had become “impossible.”
Britain has committed to spending a total of 99 million pounds this year in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories, the government said.
After Dodds’s Cairo stop, the minister is to travel to the Palestinian territories and Israel.
Islamist militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 44,429 in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
Airstrikes in northwestern Syria kill 25 people, says Syria’s White Helmets
- The Syria offensive began Wednesday, the same day a truce between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah came into effect
DAMASCUS: The Syrian rescue service known as the White Helmets said early on Monday on X that at least 25 people have been killed in northwestern Syria in airstrikes carried out by the Syrian government and Russia on Sunday.
In Blinken call, Turkiye backs moves to ease Syria tension
- The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish militants groups attacking both government forces and Kurdish YPG fighters in and around the northern Aleppo province over the weekend, a Syrian war monitor said
ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s top diplomat and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday about the “rapidly developing” conflict in Syria where militants have made gains.
Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed by telephone “the need for de-escalation and the protection of civilian lives and infrastructure in Aleppo and elsewhere,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
The call came after Syrian militants and their Turkish-backed allies launched their biggest offensive in years, seizing control of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo from forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
According to a Turkish foreign ministry source, Fidan told Blinken Ankara was “against any development that would increase instability in the region” and said Turkiye would “support moves to reduce the tension in Syria.”
He also said “the political process between the regime and the opposition should be finalized” to ensure peace in Syria while insisting that Ankara would “never allow terrorist activities against Turkiye nor against Syrian civilians.”
The flareup has also seen pro-Turkish militant groups attacking government forces and Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) fighters in and around Aleppo, a Syrian war monitor said.
Turkiye sees the YPG as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long insurgency against Ankara.
The Syria offensive began Wednesday, the same day a truce between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah came into effect.
More than 400 people have so far been killed in the offensive, most of them combatants, a Syrian war monitor said.
The State Department said the two also discussed “humanitarian efforts in Gaza and the need to bring the war to an end” as well as efforts to secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Fidan said Israel “should keep its promises in order for the Lebanon ceasefire to become permanent” and called for a ceasefire in Gaza “as soon as possible.”
The pair also discussed Ukraine and South Caucasus, the source said.
Russia says helping Syrian army ‘repel’ insurgents in three northern provinces
- Russia launched airstrikes on militant targets in Aleppo for the first time since 2016
MOSCOW: Russia on Sunday said it was helping the Syrian army “repel” armed insurgents in three northern provinces, as Moscow seeks to support the government led by its ally Bashar al-Assad.
An Islamist-dominated militant alliance launched an offensive against the Syrian government on Wednesday, with Syrian forces losing control of the city of Aleppo on Sunday, according to a war monitor.
“The Syrian Arab Army, with the assistance of the Russian Aerospace Forces, is continuing its operation to repel terrorist aggression in the provinces of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo,” the Russian military said in a briefing on its website.
“Over the past day, missile and bombing strikes were carried out on places where militants and equipment were gathered,” it said in the same briefing, without saying where or by whom.
It said at least “320 militants were destroyed.”
Russia announced earlier this week that it was bombing militant targets in the war-torn country, with Russian warplanes striking parts of Aleppo — Syria’s second city — for the first time since 2016, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Moscow is Syrian leader Assad’s most important military backer, having turned the tide of the civil war in his favor when it intervened in 2015.
