Israeli airstrike at hospital in Lebanon kills medical staff and injures 127 people _ BBC News

Bebefin Toons

An Israeli airstrike outside the main hospital in the Lebanese city of Tyre has killed four medical staff and injured at least 127 people.  The strike caused severe damage to the Jabal Amel hospital including its intensive care unit.   Israel says its airstrikes are not aimed at civilians but at the militant group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, which has been firing drones and rockets over the border into Israel.   The hospital director said the strike came without warning and claimed that the Israelis were deliberately targeting medical workers and journalists.   He denied that the hospital could be a military target.   Hezbollah has stepped up its attacks since the US and Israel launched the war Iran in February.  Since then, Israeli troops have taken control of areas of southern Lebanon, and launchd airstrikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets.

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00:00Israel and the Iran-backed group Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire despite an agreement

00:06brokered by Donald Trump to de-escalate the conflict in Lebanon. Under the deal, Israel

00:11agreed not to bomb the capital Beirut in exchange for Hezbollah not attacking communities in northern

00:17Israel. Well, John Sudworth has been to the scene of a recent Israeli strike close to the Jabal

00:23Amel Hospital in the city of Tyr, which killed four people and injured nearly 130 others,

00:30including hospital staff. Little Faris is just four hours old. With his mum recovering,

00:38he's brought out to see us by his grandma. Fast asleep in the chaos of war, shortly before he

00:46was born, Tyr's main hospital suffered serious damage in an Israeli airstrike right outside.

00:54Israel says its airstrikes are aimed not at civilians, but at Hezbollah, which has been

00:59firing drones and rockets over the border. But it's long accused it of deliberately operating

01:05close to civilian infrastructure. It's a claim doctors at this hospital dispute.

01:10What has happened here?

01:14You'll have to ask the Israelis, the hospital director replies. The strike happened without

01:20warning. Could this possibly be a military target?

01:23No. No, no, no, no, no.

01:26It makes no difference, he says. Israel targets medical workers, journalists. It wants to kick

01:32us out of our country. Dozens of workers and patients were injured, with four hospital staff

01:38left in a critical condition. Despite weeks of diplomacy and the talk of ceasefires and peace

01:46deals, the war across a swathe of southern Lebanon, a place with a deep bedrock of Hezbollah support has

01:52instead been escalating. You've only got to look at the scale of the destruction here to realise why

01:58many people have chosen to obey Israel's sweeping evacuation orders. But for those who have stayed,

02:05there is very little hope of peace, with Israel vowing to continue expanding its occupation and

02:12intensifying its military campaign. Shortly after we left, the city was hit again. In a place that's known

02:22decades of war, another life begins. This is now Faris' land too. And one day, his grandmother tells me,

02:32he'll need to defend it. John Sudworth, BBC News, Tia, in southern Lebanon.

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