BEIRUT: In an operating room in Beirut, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta was working to save the life of a 9-month-old child with severe head injuries, one of the youngest victims of the latest furious wave of Israeli strikes across Lebanon.
The renowned British-Palestinian reconstructive and plastic surgeon, known for treating war victims from Gaza to Iraq, has returned to the frontlines, this time in Lebanon, as hospitals struggle to cope with a surge of wounded civilians, a majority of whom are children.
“We received entire families with injuries after Israeli strikes targeted residential buildings, leaving them trapped under the rubble,” Abu Sitta told Arab News, speaking between back-to-back surgeries at the American University of Beirut Medical Center following Wednesday’s strikes.
For Abu Sitta, who has spent decades treating war injuries, the scenes in Lebanon are tragically familiar.
“Most of the injuries are to the head, face, eyes and bones,” he said. “These are complex cases that require multiple surgeries, sometimes between eight and 12 operations, especially for children whose treatment may continue until adulthood.”
He added that since the start of the war on March 2, war injuries have come to dominate hospital wards across the country, turning medical centers into emergency hubs operating under relentless pressure.
Within just 10 minutes on Wednesday, 70 wounded patients arrived at the emergency room in a single wave following Israeli airstrikes on Beirut and other areas across Lebanon, he said.
“War injuries are not simple,” Abu Sitta added. “They require repeated surgical interventions, often every 48 hours.”
The scale of the crisis is overwhelming a healthcare system already strained by years of economic collapse and underfunding.
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta has returned to the frontlines, this time in Lebanon. (Supplied)
“Hospitals in Lebanon are mostly small or medium-sized, and some are no longer operational because they are located in areas under threat,” he said.
Despite the pressure, Abu Sitta expressed confidence in the capabilities of Lebanese medical teams, citing decades of experience in handling war casualties. But capacity, he warned, remains a critical challenge.
The human toll of the war continues to rise. According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, more than 300 people were killed in Wednesday’s strikes alone, with over 1,100 wounded. Since the start of the war, the death toll has exceeded 1,900, including at least 118 children, while hundreds more remain injured.
In the hospital’s intensive care unit, five children are still fighting for their lives. Some have lost their parents.
The 9-month-old child Abu Sitta operated on survived after multiple surgeries.
“He was fortunate that his parents were still alive,” Abu Sitta said. “But we have received many children whose mothers or fathers were killed.”
Other victims never made it to the operating table.
“Many arrived already dead,” he said, recalling the destruction of a residential building in Beirut where most of the elderly residents were killed after it collapsed under bombardment.
Beyond the operating room, Abu Sitta has long worked to address the lasting impact of war on children. In 2024, he launched the Ghassan Abu Sitta Children’s Fund to provide medical care, psychological support and long-term rehabilitation for young victims in Gaza and Lebanon.
But the scale of violence, he warned, is pushing the limits of what even the most experienced medical teams can handle.
He accused Israel of carrying out “indiscriminate, systematic attacks” designed to overwhelm the healthcare system by inflicting mass casualties in a short period of time.
“Buildings are being targeted to collapse on their inhabitants,” he said. “Many victims die from suffocation under the rubble.”
For Abu Sitta, the pattern reflects a broader shift in the nature of modern warfare in the region.
He said the intensity of the strikes suggests an attempt to achieve a form of military victory through widespread destruction, a strategy he has witnessed before during his time treating victims in Gaza.
“We have no choice but to continue,” he said. “We keep operating, we keep trying to save lives until the body can no longer fight.”
