
Medical staff, children among those killed in pager blasts: Health Ministry
Lebanon’s Minister of Health Firass Abiad has held a media conference in Beirut on the situation in the aftermath of the pager blasts.
Abiad said many of those carrying the pagers were civilians. At least 12 people have been killed, including four medical staff, an eight-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy.
The attack showed that Israel was “steering away from a diplomatic solution,” Abiad said.
“We have to be ready and alert.”
The minister said the biggest challenge was to bring medical sector to a “situation of preparedness”, which includes increasing stockpiles of medicines and fuel.
Hospitals also needed to recover from the massive influx of patients overnight. Abiad said each hospital received 70 to 100 patients in the aftermath of the attack, which was “massive for any country”.
Source: Al Jazeera
‘The people are strong and fear is the furthest thing from our minds’
Like many hospitals in Beirut after yesterday’s pager attack, the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) is overcrowded, with people constantly filing in and out, according to Al Jazeera’s Justin Salhani in the Lebanese capital.
Salhani said women can be seen crying while young people pass out juice and water to people in queues to donate blood.
- “AUBMC have enough blood for today. [They] said the entire community came to donate,” said Salhani.
One man seated on a kerb outside the hospital’s main door, Ali, with a cut on his left leg from a prior motorcycle accident, told Al Jazeera he was waiting for someone he knew who had been hurt in the explosions.
The 40-year-old was in Beirut’s neighbourhood of Dahiyeh when the attack occurred, and heard staggered explosions, each a few seconds apart.
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Ali called yesterday’s attack “stupid”. Still, he said “the people are strong and fear is the furthest thing from our minds”.
Source: Al Jazeera
Source: Al Jazeera