It has been ten days since SVT last spoke to Elie Msallems, who works at an emergency department in central Beirut. Since then, the Israeli attacks have become even more extensive.
When thousands of pagers exploded earlier in September, Elie Msallem was greeted by complete chaos in the emergency department. People had lost fingers, entire hands or eyes. He had never experienced such a flow of incoming patients before.
After the heavy Israeli attacks that began on Friday and continued over the weekend, the situation is now something else. Hospitals are overcrowded, but not with injured patients all the time.
– In every attack now, we have more dead bodies than wounded, he explains.
The situation is draining both mentally and physically.
– We were trained to treat wounded patients, but are not trained to handle the large amounts of dead bodies that come in. The situation has really changed.
Healthcare staff among the victims
The Israeli attacks are directed at Hezbollah, but the victims include both civilians and medical personnel. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, 14 medical workers have been killed in the past two days of attacks on Lebanon.
Nobody knows what the development will look like after the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, says Elie Msallem. At any time, the situation could worsen further. All he hopes for is to return to a normal everyday life.
– My biggest concern is that we will remain in this situation for a long time, but I don’t know how long we can handle it, he says.