Lebanon said 50 doctors died in the past three days as Israel expanded its bombardment

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Lebanese authorities say Israeli bombardment has killed 50 medical workers in the past three days as Israeli warplanes continue to carry out attacks across the Arab country.

The Israeli army on Saturday said its forces attacked a mosque in southern Lebanon, near a hospital, which it said was being used as a command center by Hizbollah militants, while Their forces fought militant group fighters in the border area.

A Hizbollah-affiliated hospital in southern Lebanon, The Martyr Salah Ghandour, said the hospital was attacked shortly after the Israeli military ordered an evacuation, according to a statement on the Lebanese state news agency on Saturday. . They said nine staff members were injured in Friday’s attack in the town of Bint Jbeil.

A spokesman for the Lebanese Health Ministry told the Financial Times on Saturday that 50 medical staff have died in the past 72 hours.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said the capacity of the Lebanese health system was declining and “the UN agency’s medical supplies cannot be delivered due to the almost complete closure of Beirut airport.” .

“WHO calls for urgent facilitation of flights to deliver medical supplies to Lebanon. Lives depend on it!” he said on X.

Israel has issued multiple evacuation orders in recent days, warning people in towns and villages across the south to move north. They gave similar orders in the fight against Hamas in Gaza before major attacks.

Iran-backed Hizbollah forces said there were clashes with Israeli troops around the Lebanese border town of Odeisseh. Lebanon’s official news agency reported shelling on Odeisseh and three other southern villages.

Israel has stepped up its offensive against Hizbollah in the past two weeks as it shifted its focus from Gaza to the northern front. It killed the Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallahconducted air strikes across Lebanon and sent troops into southern Lebanon for the first time in nearly two decades.

The escalation has increased fears of an all-out war in the Middle East. The region is preparing for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Tuesday.

Tehran said the missile attack was in response to the assassination of Nasrallah and the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

According to the Lebanese state news agency, Israel struck the southern suburbs of Beirut on Saturday afternoon targeting the Palestinian refugee camp of Borj al-Barajna with four missiles. Hizbollah said Israel bombed a conference center in the southern Dahiyeh area overnight. The group used the complex to host events.

According to Lebanese authorities, nearly 2,000 people were killed in Israeli bombing of Lebanon over the past year, after Hizbollah began firing rockets into Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. Lebanon’s health minister said the majority had died in the past two weeks.

More than 1.2 million people have been displaced, causing one of the worst crises to hit the country in decades.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Saturday, a day after visiting Beirut.

Israel “speaks no other language than war and coercion and continues atrocities in Beirut, southern Lebanon and Gaza every day,” Mr. Araghchi said. He added that he would continue to discuss ceasefire initiatives in Lebanon and Gaza with Syrian officials.

This week there have been signs that Israel has expanded its attacks on Hizbollah’s civilian infrastructure, also targeting the group’s leaders.

The movement is the dominant political force in Lebanon and has a vast network of social programs and business interests. On Thursday, Israel attacked a Hizbollah-linked medical facility in central Beirut, killing at least nine people, including medical staff, as well as a building used by the country’s media relations team. This group uses in the southern suburbs.

Hamas said the attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern city of Tripoli killed Saeed Atallah Ali, commander of the Qassam Brigades, and his family in the early hours of Saturday. The second leader of Hamas, Mohammed Hussein al-Louise, was killed in an airstrike in the Bekaa Valley.

In northern Israel, air raid sirens sounded as Hizbollah launched a series of rockets. The Israel Defense Forces said the militant group fired 222 projectiles into Israel on Friday.

They said they had killed 250 Hizbollah fighters, including four battalion commanders, since the start of their ground offensive in Lebanon this week.

Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in clashes with Hizbollah in southern Lebanon as fighting intensifies.

Joe Biden has called on Israel to mount a “proportionate” response to Iran’s missile attacks and avoid targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure. But the president also made clear that the United States supports Israel’s military response.

“The Israelis have every right to respond to the vicious attacks against them, not just against the Iranians but against everyone from Hizbollah to the Houthis,” Biden said.

Additional reporting by Bita Ghaffari in Tehran