Turkish hospital in Lebanon opens burn unit amid Israeli attacks

Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad has announced that a burn unit at the Turkish Hospital in Sidon will open on Tuesday to provide critical treatment for those injured amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Lebanon.

"A (burn) unit in the Sidon Turkish Trauma and Rehabilitation Hospital will open tomorrow,” Abiad told a press conference in Beirut on Monday.

“This hospital will be Lebanon’s reference for burn treatment," he added.

The Lebanese minister thanked Türkiye for the hospital project through the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).

Lebanon's healthcare crisis

Abiad said the burn unit will include an emergency and injured section, two operation rooms, four intensive care units, four beds for burn treatment, and clinics for burn treatment and physical therapy.

Türkiye offered to build the hospital following the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006. The facility was built in 2010, but preparations are ongoing to put it into operation.

The Lebanese health minister said that eight hospitals in the country were forced out of service as a result of Israeli attacks on medical facilities.

Israel has escalated its air assaults in Lebanon since late September against what it claims are Hezbollah targets in an escalation from year-long cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group since the start of Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza.

Nearly 3,000 people have been killed and more than 13,300 injured in Israeli attacks since October 2023, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Israel expanded the conflict by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon on October 1 this year.