Doctors treating victims of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have issued a stark warning: the tactics they are seeing mirror what happened in Gaza. Medical staff say hospitals, ambulances and first responders are once again coming under attack — and they are urging world leaders to act before more lives are lost. A burns victim receives treatment at Sidon government hospital© N/A British surgeon Tom Potokar says the pattern is chillingly familiar. He previously worked inside European Hospital when it was bombed and is now treating patients in Lebanon. “The violation of international humanitarian laws has become normalised,” he said. “Once again we’re seeing attacks on the medical infrastructure, just like we saw in Gaza, but this time in Lebanon.” Potokar has travelled to Sidon to work at the government hospital there. The hospital houses the country’s key specialist burns unit, which he helped establish through his charity Interburns more than a year ago. Inside the ward, the impact of the airstrikes is brutally clear. One patient arrived after his home in Nabatieh was bombed in an Israeli airstrike just over a week earlier. He suffered burns to 65% of his body. Doctors say it will take months for him to recover. Two other severely burned victims were brought to the hospital after the same strike destroyed homes in southern Lebanon. Their bodies are now covered in bandages as medics battle to keep them alive. Among the doctors helping them is Anna Joseph, who has taken time off from her NHS role to treat patients. She says the destruction of healthcare systems is having devastating consequences. “The systematic destruction of healthcare facilities and staff from here and in Gaza has created a huge need,” she said. “People are suffering and dying and the specialists who could help them are being targeted, arrested, denied entry or even killed.” Another voice in the hospital comes from a doctor forced to flee Gaza. Mohammad Ziara said the scenes in Lebanon echo what he experienced while working at Al Shifa Hospital. “It is obvious what’s happening in Lebanon,” he said. “There is an attempt to degrade the medical facilities in order to push people to leave just like they have done in Gaza.” He warned that unless international law is enforced on all sides, the violence will continue. The Israeli military has rejected accusations of targeting civilians deliberately. It says Hezbollah fighters are hiding among civilian structures and using ambulances to transport military equipment, although it has not provided evidence. Officials at the Lebanese Ministry of Health strongly deny the claims. They say such accusations are attempts by Israel to “justify war crimes.” Another British-Palestinian doctor has also spoken out. Ghassan Abu Sittah, who runs a clinic in Beirut, says the impact on children is especially severe. He says Israel’s evacuation orders for the southern suburbs of Beirut forced several hospitals to shut. “When Israel ordered the evacuation of the southern suburbs we lost four hospitals,” he said. One of those hospitals had a paediatric intensive care unit. Without access to those facilities, doctors say the health system has shrunk dramatically. Ambulances are now hesitant to travel to outlying hospitals because of the dangers. Abu Sittah said three children died while waiting to be transferred for treatment. He describes the strategy as devastating. “What we are seeing is a scorched earth policy,” he said. According to him, such tactics can make an area uninhabitable by destroying its healthcare system. In densely populated cities, hospitals act as social anchors for entire communities. As the conflict intensifies, the humanitarian toll continues to rise. The Israel Defense Forces says it has killed hundreds of Hezbollah fighters and destroyed military infrastructure. In a statement on Thursday, it said more than 30 militants were eliminated in close-quarters combat and airstrikes. But the militant group Hezbollah says it remains capable of striking back. It claimed its fighters fired a record 80 rockets into northern Israel in a single day. Residents across southern Lebanon now live under the constant hum of Israeli jets. The noise is often followed by the sound of outgoing Hezbollah rockets. Civilians are caught in the middle. In the Sidon hospital burns unit, one father is grieving an unimaginable loss. Mohammad Kobeissi lost his teenage son when their apartment in central Beirut was hit during a night-time airstrike. “I have no feelings right now,” he said quietly. “Our family used to be four — now it’s three.” His son was just 15 years old. The toll across the country is climbing fast. The Lebanese health ministry says more than 3,000 people have been injured and more than 1,000 killed, although it does not separate civilians from combatants. The violence has also triggered a mass displacement crisis. More than a million people have fled their homes. Most have escaped communities near the Israeli border in the south. Others have fled the southern suburbs of Beirut, including the densely populated district of Dahieh. Israel says it is creating a security “buffer zone” along the border. Military operations have included blowing up bridges, bombing petrol stations and striking power plants supplying electricity to entire cities. Residents south of the Litani River have been warned to leave large areas of territory. Several Israeli officials have also indicated that ground troops could occupy the region. The zone would cover roughly 10% of Lebanon’s territory. As fighting intensifies, doctors on the ground say the humanitarian cost is already overwhelming. They warn that unless the violence stops, the health system — and the civilians relying on it — could collapse entirely. Lebanon doctors say Israel is repeating Gaza's 'scorched earth policy'
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