Lebanese caretaker Public Health Minister Firas Abiad announced that the toll from Israeli assaults on Lebanon since October 8 has reached 1,640 dead and 8,408 injured.
This statement came during a press conference where the Minister detailed the casualties from the Israeli attacks and discussed the services provided to displaced individuals amid an increase in their numbers following the airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
He clarified that the total death toll since the onset of hostilities on October 8, 2023, stands at 1,640 people, including 104 children and 194 women, while the number of injured has reached 8,408. He noted that there are still victims trapped under rubble, as well as missing persons and dismembered bodies.
Abiad added that since yesterday, there have been 11 new fatalities and 108 injuries. He pointed out that the toll in the health sector since the beginning of the conflict includes 41 dead and 111 injured.
The Health Minister confirmed that no hospital has yet been rendered inoperative, but to alleviate the burden on hospitals in targeted areas and to facilitate access for people, the Lebanese Ministry of Health has initiated a patient evacuation process, transferring them to other hospitals for continued treatment.
Lebanon has been subjected to extensive Israeli attacks targeting various provinces and regions, particularly villages and towns in the south, resulting in nearly 3,000 deaths and injuries, while residents of the targeted areas have fled in large numbers.
Smoke rises from a factory destroyed in an overnight Israeli airstrike in the town of Chouaifet south of Beirut on on Saturday. AFP
Displaced families receive water and food after fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in southern Beirut, in Lebanon on Saturday. REUTERS
A child sits on a street as displaced families stay on the roads after spending the night fleeing the overnight Israeli strikes in southern Beirut, in Lebanon on Saturday. REUTERS
A man walks on the rubble of damaged buildings in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon on Saturday. REUTERS
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Khiam on on Saturday. AFP