London

Owen Dyer

The first reports of attacks on Lebanese medical staff emerged last weekend, as Israeli aircraft destroyed two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances that were bringing wounded civilians to the Najm Hospital in Tyre.

Six Red Cross staff were injured in the attack on Sunday night, which was widely reported in the press; and three patients with light shrapnel wounds who were being transported sustained critical injuries. Kassem Chalaan, the driver of the first ambulance hit, told the BBC that the second vehicle was struck immediately when it radioed for help. Both vehicles were clearly marked with flashing sirens and spotlights directed onto the Red Cross symbol, Mr Chalaan said.

Lebanon’s minister for public health, Mohammed Jawad Khalifa, reported two earlier attacks on ambulances, although these were not Red Cross vehicles. One attack occurred near Burj-el-Shemali. The driver lost an arm, and two passengers were injured. The other took place on the Zahrani bridge, scene of frequent Israeli air strikes. The driver lost both legs.

The health ministry is compiling data on all killed and wounded civilians to present to the United Nations. As the BMJ went to press on Tuesday the official count stood at 384 Lebanese dead, including 20 soldiers and 11 Hizbollah guerrillas. A total of 1595 people had been injured.

Dr Khalifa predicted that the country would begin to run out of medical supplies in five days. But the distribution is patchy, and supplies are already running low in some cut-off areas , he said. A hospital pharmacist in Baalbek had called the Lebanese Red Cross in Beirut to report that supplies were low and that drugs for hypertensive and diabetic patients had run out.

Although no reports have yet come in of direct attacks on Lebanese hospitals, 30 patients were reported injured by flying glass after a bomb detonated outside Beirut’s Sahel General Hospital on Saturday. A camera crew from CNN confirmed the damage.

A two person team dispatched by Médecins du Monde to the hospital in Tyre reported that they hoped to send emergency kits by boat from Beirut on Wednesday.

A United Nations report noted that prices for food and basic commodities have risen by as much as 600%. One of the most pressing shortages is fuel, which has threatened hospitals’ electricity generation, sewage systems, and water delivery, said Jan Egeland, the UN’s coordinator of emergency relief.

Aid agencies in Beirut received an unexpected boost to their food supplies last weekend, when many of the city’s restaurants, unable to refrigerate their food in the absence of power, donated it to charities instead.