BEIRUT: Islamic and Christian spiritual authorities in Lebanon have called unanimously for “the immediate and full implementation of Resolution 1701,” which includes supporting the Lebanese army, enhancing its capabilities to defend the country, and ensuring its widespread deployment south of the Litani River and across all Lebanese territories.
The summit took place on Wednesday at the Maronite Patriarchate headquarters in Bkerke amidst escalating Israeli attacks and included Shiite representatives, despite previous differences between the sect and Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi over Lebanon’s neutrality and Hezbollah’s weapons.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon was praised for “remaining at their positions despite unjustified Israeli harassment and warnings aimed at removing any witnesses to the brutal massacres Israel is committing against our nation.”
In its closing statement, it added: “Solutions for Lebanon will only, and must only, come through comprehensive national solutions.
“These solutions should be based on adherence to the Lebanese constitution, the Taif Agreement, the Lebanese state, its unified authority, its free decision-making, and its responsible role in protecting the nation, national sovereignty, and its responsibilities toward its people, ensuring their security, stability, and prosperity.”
The summit stressed the need for “reforming constitutional institutions, especially for parliament to immediately begin the election of a president who enjoys the trust of all Lebanese, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, with as much understanding and consensus as possible, based on a collective Lebanese will, adhering to the spirit of the National Pact, prioritizing the national interest, and surpassing external interests.”
It also called on the government to “fully assume its responsibilities and to cooperate with parliament according to the Constitution, to mobilize the efforts of Arab brothers and the many friends around the world, to contribute with the Lebanese in saving Lebanon.”
Parallel to the summit, Israeli attacks and confrontations continued along the border.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health announced a case of cholera 01 in a Lebanese woman in the Akkar region As a result, the national cholera plan and containment measures were being deployed.
Some 1.2 million people have been displaced from the south, Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburb as a result of the war, moving toward central and northern Lebanon. Hundreds are without shelter, sleeping outdoors or in their cars.
Israeli airstrikes have targeted the southern suburb of Beirut — specifically the uninhabited area of Haret Hreik — following a week-long cessation of such attacks. It came after a warning to evacuate residential buildings was issued by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee on social media, claiming the raids “targeted, with precise intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence Service, a strategic weapons depot for Hezbollah that was stored in an underground warehouse in the southern suburb.”
Airstrikes targeted the city of Nabatieh, 56 km from Beirut, unleashing a series of missiles that destroyed the municipal building.
At the time, the mayor, council members and administrative personnel were organizing humanitarian aid for displaced people in the region. The attack left six people dead, including Mayor Dr. Ahmad Kahil, and 43 injured.
Condemning the attack, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said it was “a message to the world that remains deliberately silent on the crimes of the occupation, which encourages it to persist in its transgressions and crimes.”
He added: “If all the countries in the world are unable to deter a blatant aggression against the Lebanese people, what is the point of turning to the Security Council to demand a ceasefire? What can possibly dissuade the enemy from committing atrocities that have escalated to the point of targeting peacekeeping forces in the south? What solution can be anticipated in light of this reality?”
The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, called for “the protection of civilians at all times.”
She said “violations of international humanitarian law are entirely unacceptable. It is imperative that all concerned parties immediately cease hostilities and pave the way for diplomatic solutions.”
Media reports indicated that Israel had captured three additional members of Hezbollah after initially detaining four on Tuesday. This was not confirmed by the organization.
Airstrikes on the town of Qana at dawn left three people dead and 54 more injured. The Ministry of Health confirmed rescuers were working to clear rubble in an effort to reach those trapped beneath it, while an infant who was found still alive had been taken to hospital.
Mourners and rescue teams in cemeteries in Jouya were also targeted by airstrikes as they tried to buy the victims of previous attacks, resulting in additional injuries.
Direct confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah continued along the routes of Taybeh, Rab El-Thalathine, Markaba, Hula, Ramya, Aita Al-Shaab, and Qaouzah.
Shebaa also experienced heavy artillery shelling, prompting the intervention of the Lebanese Red Cross to evacuate several elderly individuals who insisted on remaining in the town rather than relocating to Hasbaya.
The Israeli army reported 13 injured soldiers along the Lebanese front in the past 24 hours. A statement said: “Israeli naval forces attacked dozens of Hezbollah terrorist targets, in cooperation with the fighters on the ground.”
Meanwhile, it also waged psychological warfare by calling civilians directly.
The Ghandour Hospital in Nabatieh Al-Fawqa, which closed some years ago, received warnings to evacuate after hosting displaced people from border villages. A man driving his car on the coast ride in Sidon was also prompted to flee his vehicle after he received a call.
Six people were wounded in airstrikes on the town of Yammoune, while Israeli drones flew at low altitude over the Lebanese-Syrian border area in Hermel in an attempt to prevent the reopening of crossings shelled in previous attacks.
Hezbollah announced a series of targets on the Israeli side, including Safed, the Yeftah settlement and Israeli army artillery positions in Dalton, Dishon and Misgav Am.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reported that two Israelis were wounded after five Lebanese rockets struck the yard of a house in Safed.
The Israeli army said 50 missiles had been launched from Lebanon toward the north of the country at dawn, some of which were intercepted.
Spiritual summit in peace push amid continued Israeli massacres in southern Lebanon
https://arab.news/g9pd3
Spiritual summit in peace push amid continued Israeli massacres in southern Lebanon
- The summit took place on Wednesday at the Maronite Patriarchate headquarters in Bkerke amidst escalating Israeli attacks and included Shiite representatives
- In its closing statement, it added: “Solutions for Lebanon will only, and must only, come through comprehensive national solutions
How 1,000 days of war pushed Sudan’s health system to the brink of collapse
- After nearly three years of fighting, attacks on hospitals, mass displacement and disease outbreaks are crippling care nationwide
- As humanitarian needs soar, doctors and aid agencies warn Sudan’s health system cannot survive without peace and access
LONDON: After more than 1,000 days of war, Sudan’s health system is buckling under the combined weight of violence, displacement, disease and hunger, pushing millions of civilians toward a crisis with few historical parallels.
What began as a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has evolved into what UN agencies now describe as the world’s largest humanitarian and health emergency.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 20 million people in Sudan now require health assistance, while an estimated 33.7 million — roughly two-thirds of the population — are expected to need humanitarian aid this year.
At least 21 million people face acute food insecurity, with famine already confirmed in parts of North Darfur and South Kordofan.
“One thousand days of conflict in Sudan have driven the health system to the brink of collapse,” Dr. Shible Sahbani, WHO’s representative in Sudan, said in a statement. “Under the strain of disease, hunger and a lack of access to basic services, people face a devastating situation.”
The health system’s deterioration has been swift and severe. Since the war began in April 2023, WHO has verified 201 attacks on health care, resulting in 1,858 deaths and 490 injuries.
More than one third of health facilities nationwide — 37 percent — are now non-functional, depriving millions of people of essential and lifesaving care.
“Healthcare facilities are being attacked, there is a shortage of medicines and supplies, and a lack of financial and human resources to operate health services,” Sahbani said. “This means that the system is on the verge of collapse.”
In the hardest-hit regions, particularly Darfur and Kordofan, the picture is even bleaker.
Aid groups estimate that in some areas up to 80 percent of health facilities are no longer operational, leaving overstretched clinics struggling to cope with outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue and measles.
“The weather and conditions in Sudan are conducive to the spread of malaria and dengue fever by mosquitoes,” Sahbani said. “Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and polio, are also being reported in many states right now.”
Sudan is now the world’s largest displacement crisis. An estimated 13.6 million people have been forced from their homes — around 9.3 million internally displaced and a further 4.3 million seeking refuge in neighboring countries.
Overcrowded displacement sites, poor sanitation and the collapse of routine health and water services have created ideal conditions for disease outbreaks. Cholera has now been reported in all 18 states, dengue in 14 states, and malaria in 16.
“As the relentless conflict renders some areas inaccessible, particularly in the Darfur and Kordofan regions, the population’s health needs continue to increase,” Sahbani said.
“To meet these mounting needs and prevent the crisis from spiraling out of hand, WHO and humanitarian partners require safe and unimpeded access to all areas of Sudan, and increased financial resources.”
Children are bearing the heaviest burden of Sudan’s collapse. According to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, roughly half of those expected to need humanitarian assistance in 2026 are children.
“For the children of Sudan, the world is 1,000 days late,” Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
“Since fighting erupted in April 2023, Sudan has become one of the largest and most devastating humanitarian crises in the world, pushing millions of children to the brink of survival.”
More than 5 million children have been displaced — the equivalent of 5,000 children displaced every day — often repeatedly, as violence follows families from one location to another.
“Millions of children in Sudan are at risk of rape and other forms of sexual violence, which is being used as a tactic of war, with children as young as one reported among survivors,” Beigbeder said.
Malnutrition is compounding the crisis. In North Darfur alone, nearly 85,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition were treated between January and November 2025 — “equivalent to one child every six minutes.”
“The collapse of health systems, critical water shortages and the breakdown of basic services are compounding the crisis, fueling deadly disease outbreaks and placing an estimated 3.4 million children under five at risk,” Beigbeder said.
Hunger is worsening Sudan’s health crisis.
“Sudan was once considered to be the food basket of the entire region,” Sahbani said. “Today, it is facing one of the most serious food crises in the world: more than 21 million people face high levels of acute malnutrition and food insecurity.”
Children under five and pregnant or breastfeeding women are particularly vulnerable. “We estimate that nearly 800,000 children under the age of five will have suffered severe acute malnutrition in 2025,” Sahbani added.
UNICEF warns that the breakdown of maternal and child health services has turned childbirth into a life-threatening event, particularly in displacement camps where access to skilled care and surgical facilities is limited or nonexistent.
A Port Sudan-based doctor, who asked to remain anonymous, said the cumulative impact of the war had shattered the country’s health system, with facilities, staff and infrastructure systematically dismantled.
“After a thousand days of awful war, the health system in Sudan remains in a dire situation,” the doctor told Arab News.
“The health system and of course the infrastructure have seen direct attack, where 75 percent of the hospitals and health facilities sustained damage, either via direct shelling or looting of their equipment.”
The conflict has also hollowed out Sudan’s medical workforce. “Many of the health personnel and workforce had to flee, as they were targeted themselves,” the doctor said, warning that the loss of staff has sharply reduced the country’s ability to deliver even basic care.
The collapse of routine services has accelerated the spread of disease, particularly among children. “We started to see the emergence of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like diphtheria and measles — many outbreaks that we are seeing among children,” the doctor said.
Damage to water infrastructure has further compounded the crisis. “Attacks on water stations led to outbreaks like cholera and hepatitis E with high fatalities among pregnant women,” the doctor added.
Reversing the damage will require far more than short-term emergency aid, the doctor said.
“Sudan’s health system requires huge rehabilitation and rebuilding,” they said, stressing that the consequences of inaction extend well beyond Sudan’s borders. “Health is now global health — whenever there is an outbreak somewhere, there is a risk of it spreading all over.”
The doctor called for urgent international support to stabilize services and rebuild infrastructure.
“There is a need for urgent donations to fill the huge gap in life-saving health services to the people and also to rebuild the health infrastructure,” they said, adding that support must focus on areas of greatest need, “especially conflict areas as well as areas that have been freed of the RSF where now people are returning.”
As international access remains constrained and funding dwindles, much of the burden of care has fallen on Sudanese communities themselves — including diaspora-funded initiatives and volunteer-run clinics and the Emergency Response Rooms
“The conflict has exacerbated all the vulnerabilities Sudan’s health system faced before the war,” Dr. Majdi Osman, a University of Cambridge scientist and founder of Nubia Health, a diaspora-funded clinic in Wadi Halfa in Sudan’s Northern State, told Arab News.
“Decades of under-investment, especially outside of Khartoum, left the health system fragile, but the current violence has pushed it into a state of collapse.”
Supply chains have fragmented, driving up costs and limiting access to essential medicines. “Getting basic medicines has become a challenge but somehow health workers in Sudan are adapting and have been able to get medicines to communities in need,” Osman said.
“For patients with chronic diseases, the war has forced an impossible choice. Stay in a collapsing system or flee across dangerous routes to reach Egypt just to access life-saving treatment that should be a basic right.
“We are seeing families separated and lives risked on these journeys because the local medical infrastructure can no longer sustain the continuous care required for conditions like kidney disease or cancer.”
Despite the devastation, Sudan’s medical workforce has not disappeared. “Sudan does not lack medical expertise; it lacks the infrastructure and stability,” Osman said.
In Wadi Halfa, displaced doctors have arrived from Khartoum, Blue Nile and other conflict-affected regions. “At Nubia Health we are trying to provide them with the resources they need to support health in their communities,” Osman added.
Some organizations are attempting to restore fragments of the national health system. The Sudanese American Physicians Association, a leading humanitarian medical group, has sent a large delegation to Sudan to assess conditions and reopen facilities.
“Our delegation is on the ground to help reopen and restore essential hospital services disrupted by war — starting with the most critical hospitals across the health system’s resiliency, not only in Khartoum but also across the country,” Dr. Anmar Homeida, SAPA’s strategic adviser, told Arab News.
On Wednesday, SAPA announced the reopening of Bahri Teaching Hospital, one of the state’s largest referral facilities, “which represents a lifeline for children, mothers, and people with chronic and hard-to-treat conditions,” said Homeida.
“The impact we’re aiming for is simple: reduce preventable deaths, help local medical providers and humanitarian personnel deliver quality care to people in need, and support families returning home and those still displaced across the country, especially from Darfur and Kordofan, to have quality access to healthcare.
“With Sudan’s health system severely damaged and outbreaks spreading, reopening functional referral hospitals in Khartoum and supporting frontline services across other states is a practical step toward stabilizing communities and enabling recovery.”
Despite insecurity and access constraints, WHO says it continues to deliver lifesaving assistance wherever possible.
Since April 2023, the agency has delivered more than 3,300 metric tons of medicines and medical supplies worth around $40 million, including treatments for cholera, malaria, dengue and severe malnutrition.
About 24 million people have received cholera vaccinations, while more than 3.3 million have accessed care at WHO-supported hospitals, primary health facilities and mobile clinics.
More than 112,400 children with severe acute malnutrition have received treatment at WHO-supported stabilization centers.
“WHO is doing what we can, where we can, and we know we are saving lives and rebuilding the health system,” Sahbani said. “Despite the challenges, we are also working on recovery of the health system.”
Aid agencies are clear that humanitarian action alone cannot resolve Sudan’s crisis. “Humanitarian action can save lives, but it cannot replace the protection that only peace can provide,” Beigbeder said.
WHO, UNICEF and Sudanese doctors are united in their call for an end to the fighting and unimpeded humanitarian access.
“All parties must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law: protect civilians, stop attacks on infrastructure, and allow safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access across Sudan,” Beigbeder said.
For Osman, the message to donors is equally stark.
“Firstly, the international community needs to move quickly and support Sudanese, community-led efforts that are delivering care today,” he said.
“When I recently visited Sudan, I was expecting to see a global response to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. I found almost nothing.
“Secondly, the best cure for Sudan’s health crisis is peace. We can’t allow children in Sudan to go through another 1,000 days of conflict to pass otherwise we risk the health of a whole generation growing up in this pointless war.”
