CGTN Europe speaks to Dr. Hosam Faysal, Regional Head of Health, Disasters, Climate & Crises (HDCC) Unit - Middle East & North Africa at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
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00:00Doctor Faisal, what are your teams seeing on the ground in Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon?
00:08Good evening. Of course, the situation, it's beyond describing how it is catastrophic in terms of the humanitarian impact on the people displaced.
00:19We are talking about almost one million people displaced, according to the recent estimation from the local authorities.
00:27We are talking about almost 4,000 buildings destroyed. We are talking about almost 37 health facilities closed due to the recent escalations.
00:37Of course, without forgetting the important element, which is the human element here, with almost 1,600 people killed, almost 8,000 people injured because of the ongoing hostilities.
00:49Lebanon is already suffering from before the recent escalation with a series of crises and emergencies from the socio-economic situation to the Beirut blast explosion, COVID-19 impact as well.
01:02Doctor Faisal, you have worked around the world, specifically in terms of those pictures and what you described there coming out of Lebanon, apocalyptic scenes.
01:12How would you describe how horrific, how bad it is there?
01:18I want to give an example here. When we are talking about one out of every three displaced people as a child, that gives us a lot of implications.
01:27What does that mean from the humanitarian needs, from the situation itself on the ground?
01:33We have a massive displacement from the south, from Bekaa and Beirut, southern suburbs.
01:41When we talk about health facilities, for example, we have health workers themselves being displaced together with their families.
01:48When you put things into perspective, there is a massive need for support.
01:53Here, our colleagues at the Lebanese Red Cross are providing support across the country through their own emergency medical teams, through their blood banks and relief teams as well.
02:04Of course, the needs are beyond the coping mechanism or the coping capacity.
02:10There is an urgent need for international support through supporting local capacities, through supporting our work as well.
02:17As an IFRC, the International Federation of Red Cross, we launched our emergency appeal for the Middle East crisis and it is just 12% covered.
02:26That gives us a signal as well how we are pushed to prioritize within the priorities to support our responding national societies on the ground.
02:36Ok, thank you very much Dr Faisal for describing the challenges that you face there. Thank you very much indeed.
02:42Thank you.