Foreign and local journalists take a tour inside Sahel General Hospital, in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon. AP
On Monday night, the Sahel General Hospital in Beirut's Dahiyeh had been forced to evacuate after Israel issued a statement claiming Hezbollah was hiding cash and gold in a bunker under the hospital.
The hospital’s administration denied the allegation, yet felt threatened and evacuated the patients.
To counter the claims Israel has frequently used to target the healthcare sector in Gaza, Beirut's Sahel Hospital opened its doors to foreign journalists, offering a tour to debunk Israeli allegations that Hezbollah bunkers exist beneath the facility.
On Tuesday, it invited foreign journalists to inspect the hospital and its two underground floors "freely."
The doctors and Lebanese state security officers watched as journalists from several major news agencies and institution inspected the hospital's beds and a mostly empty underground storage space, The Guardian reported.
AP reporters saw no sign of militants or anything out of the ordinary.
In addition, BBC journalist Orla Guerin was taken on a tour through the facility’s building, including the first and second levels below the ground, but nothing was found underneath.
However, Israel claimed again that the media should have accessed specific entrances in the parking, but journalists returned once again to find nothing.
Journalists explored the building's underground parking, but found only old boxes and a few cars, plus a locked storage space, the British newspaper added.
Many foreign media reports described the horror in Lebanon’s hospitals fearing that Israel could target them as it did when raided medical facilities across Gaza.
Probes on the Israeli army's claims that Hamas and other fighters in Gaza have been using hospitals, including Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, for military purposes since the start of the Gaza war proved that these allegations were baseless.
However, with the restrictions imposed by Israel on journalists in Gaza, reporters have been unable to make such tours in the strip's hospitals as they did in Lebanon.
An hour after the evacuation of Sahel Hospital, an Israeli airstrike hit the entrance of Rafic Hariri University Hospital in Beirut’s Jnah area, killing 18 people including a child and wounding at least 60 others. The Israeli military claimed it struck a Hezbollah target, without elaborating.
Jihad Saadeh, director of Rafic Hariri Hospital, said the facility was damaged by Israeli shrapnel but confirmed they are still operating at full capacity despite the severe damage.
He added that the hospital would not be evacuated but needed urgent repairs.
Fadi Fakhry Alameh, one of the Sahel Hospital's directors, told CNN that the Israeli military has made similar claims in Gaza before targeting hospitals. “Now they are doing it in Lebanon,” he said.
Sahel Hospital is a private medical centre with underground rooms for surgery, Alameh told Al-Jadeed TV.
He added that the hospital has been in the area for 42 years and is not linked to any political group.
Moreover, the Director-General of the Lebanese Ministry of Health Fadi Sinan denied any involvement of the healthcare sector in non-medical activities and called on the international community to help stop Israel’s attacks on hospitals.
Deliberate destruction of healthcare sector
Israeli strikes in Lebanon impacted more than two dozen hospitals, with five hospitals out of operation and 22 partially damaged, Head of the Lebanese Doctors’ Syndicate Bakhash told Al Jazeera.
Around 150 healthcare workers have been killed, including four doctors “who were performing their humanitarian and medical duties,” Bakhash said.
The doctor noted that over 100 primary care centres have been forced to shut down and 150 ambulances have been destroyed as a result of the strikes.
While attacks on the country’s medical facilities and healthcare workers have been ongoing throughout the past year, Bakhash added, they have escalated since September when fighting between Hezbollah and Israel ramped up.
“The goal of these attacks is to cripple this sector,” the doctor said.
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