BEIRUT: The World Health Organization delivered 32 tonnes of emergency medical supplies to Lebanon on Monday amid growing fears of a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The aid, which will equip Lebanon’s most under-resourced hospitals, included at least 1,000 trauma kits to treat possible war wounded. “The goal is to get these supplies and medicines to hospitals ... especially in the places most exposed so that we can be ready to deal with any emergency,” Health Minister Firass Abiad said.
Beirut airport’s departure hall was packed on Monday with families fleeing the country after states including Saudi Arabia, France, Britain, Italy and Turkiye urged their nationals to leave. “It is just very sad, oh God, the situation is really sad. We get out of a crisis, we go into another one,” said Sherin Malah, who lives in Italy and decided to return home early after a visit to her mother in Lebanon.
Germany is preparing to move its citizens to safety and has prepared transport aircraft to shuttle them from Beirut to Cyprus. The US urged Americans in Lebanon “to book any ticket available,” the UN asked the families of its staff to leave and the Swedish embassy moved its operations to Cyprus.
Tension has soared since Israel’s assassination last week of senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran a few hours later. Iran said on Monday: “No one has the right to doubt Iran’s legal right to punish the Zionist regime.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “determined to stand against Iran ... on all fronts.”
Meanwhile Hezbollah and Israel continued their near-daily exchanges of fire. Four people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese border towns of Mays Al-Jabal and Hula, and Hezbollah hit military targets in northern Israel with explosive drones.
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