JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
For much of the last year, the exchange of fire between the state of Israel and the militant group Hezbollah were not the big story in the region, but that has changed. Those attacks and counterattacks got remarkably more intense this week, with a dramatic increase of airstrikes deep in Lebanon and Hezbollah launching a ballistic missile toward Tel Aviv today. Israel shot down that missile and many Hezbollah rockets, limiting damage and casualties.
In comparison, in Lebanon, the death toll from today alone was at least 51 people and 223 wounded, according to the country's health ministry. The health care system does have contingency plans for crisis - for mass casualty and mass displacement - but it is at full capacity right now, and it's not like other health problems have disappeared.
FIRASS ABIAD: Today, we helped nine women deliver in our public hospitals. So there are a lot of and various needs.
SUMMERS: Today, we reached Dr. Firass Abiad, the Minister of Health in Lebanon, and I asked him if he's ever seen this level of death in Lebanon before.
ABIAD: The tally for the attacks that occurred on Monday, which comprises 569 killed, and - including 140 children and women, two workers who work for the United Nations and nine paramedics and 1,835 wounded - I mean, this is the biggest daily tally we have since probably the civil war, to my knowledge.
SUMMERS: Just hearing you there describe the level of violence, the number of casualties there - it raises a question for me about your health system and your resources. How are your hospitals coping with such need?
ABIAD: Well, they are working at full capacity. Remember that with the attacks that occurred last week, we had received then almost over 3,000 casualties. And therefore, when these attacks occurred on Monday, our system was working almost to full capacity, and we really had to transfer patients very far, for example, up to the north of the country or to hospitals that were able to accommodate these patients.
SUMMERS: You're there, and you've been visiting patients and medical workers at these hospitals and health care facilities. What do you hear from them? What are they telling you?
ABIAD: Well, the health care workers are clearly tired. Some of them have been operating continuously for 48 hours or more. But at the same time, all of the hospitals are showing a good response in the sense that they were taking in those patients. They were managing to use the drills that we've done, the disaster planning for managing mass casualties, because a lot of those attacks were indiscriminate. So you do feel that. But obviously, the general feeling is people don't want war. People want this to be over with as quickly as possible.
SUMMERS: I've heard you mention the high number of casualties among civilians, particularly on Monday, the most intense day of airstrikes there. Can you give us a sense of how you and the government have determined that so many of these victims were civilian victims?
ABIAD: I mean, you could see that. You know, the civilians were coming from residential areas. They were coming from their homes. Remember that our ambulances are the ones that were transporting. You know, we're talking about women. We're talking about children, and we're talking about people at different ages. I mean, we're not talking about combatants.
And furthermore, you know, I've been asked this question several times by the international media. And my answer to them is, you know, unlike Russia, the media in Lebanon can go everywhere they want. And they can judge for themselves whether these are areas that were where civilians live or whether these are areas where combatants live.
SUMMERS: Doctor, what is the greatest need there right now? What type of support do people there in Lebanon need, as the - it sounds like the country is really still grappling with the aftermath of these attacks?
ABIAD: I think what we need is for things to deescalate. You know, this is an issue that cannot be sorted by providing more resources. The loss of lives also that we are seeing is needless, and that is why the Lebanese government, from the beginning, has been pushing for a, you know, a diplomatic solution because to be honest, at the level of carnage we're seeing - if in one day, you see 500-plus people are killed, no health system can maintain its response with these...
SUMMERS: Right.
ABIAD: ...Kind of numbers.
SUMMERS: You've said that you don't want war. To what degree do you worry, though, about a full-scale war between Hezbollah and Israel?
ABIAD: I think this is a real worry. If you listen to the messages that are coming across the border, it's clear the Israel government is preparing for further escalation. I mean, we are in full-fledged war - but even further escalation. Now, the worry here, obviously, is as, you know - if this escalation happens, is that we will see some kind of retaliation and that this could easily then spiral into a more regional conflict. You know, this would be really a regional carnage.
SUMMERS: Dr. Firass Abiad is the head of Lebanon's Health Ministry. Doctor, thank you for joining us.
ABIAD: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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