Red Cross calls for protection of medical workers in Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) called on Monday for Lebanon's health care system to be protected after reports that Israeli strikes hit medical staff during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

"I really... appeal for the protection of healthcare workers, for ambulances, for hospitals, for primary health centres," said Nicolas Von Arx, the ICRC's regional director for the Near and Middle East.

"Attacks on health facilities are deeply worrying," he added.

Such strikes mean "a hospital that doesn't function anymore. That means thousands, tens of thousands of people who cannot get healthcare, who cannot deliver in a safe place, who cannot get their wounds treated," he said.

After nearly a year of cross-border fire, Israel on September 23 dramatically escalated its air strikes targeting Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

At least 1,315 people have been killed since, according to an AFP tally of health ministry figures, though the real number is likely to be higher.

The Israeli strikes -- concentrated mostly on the south and east of the country, as well as the heavily populated southern suburbs of Beirut -- have forced 1.2 million from their homes.

Of the 207 primary health care centres in Lebanon's conflict areas, 100 are now closed due to the escalating violence, the World Health Organization says.

Five hospitals have shut "as a result of structural damage following attacks", while attacks on health workers and facilities in Lebanon have caused almost 100 deaths in a year.

"We are very, very concerned about the displacements, about the functioning of health care systems, about the continuous suffering now in Lebanon," Von Arx said.

He said the ICRC's priority was shipping in aid and supporting a health sector already battered by five years of economic crisis, and helping to set up trauma units in Beirut and in east Lebanon.

Von Arx added that ICRC now had problems working in southern Lebanon.

"It's very difficult to get there," he said.

He spoke on the day an Israeli strike hit an east Lebanon town as an aid convoy drove through it, injuring one of its drivers, according to a governor and official media.

"Humanitarian workers should be respected, must be respected, so that they can do their vital work", Von Arx said. — Agence France-Presse