Beirut - At least 18 people, including four children, were martyred in an Israeli attack outside Lebanon’s largest public hospital in Beirut on Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said in an update on Tuesday. An additional 60 people were injured in the missile strike outside the Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the ministry said Tuesday. Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed a total of 63 people and injured at least 234 on Monday, the Lebanese ministry said in a separate statement.
The facility in the Jnah neighbourhood sustained minor damage in the strike, with windows shattered and its solar panels destroyed, its director said. In the vicinity, four buildings were flattened by the strikes, said an AFP correspondent in the area. Rescuers were on Tuesday still searching for survivors, amid fears that the toll may rise further. Among those sifting through the rubble was resident Ola Eid who said she had watched from her balcony the previous night as her neighbourhood was bombed.
“The children were playing in the courtyard,” Eid told AFP. “I was tossing them chocolate and candy from my balcony,” she added.
“Before they could even catch them, the first strike hit, then a second. I saw the children ripped apart.” The strike came as Israel targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs following evacuation warnings. The Ouzai neighbourhood, minutes away from Jnah, was hit for the first time during the conflict, Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported.
