WHO chief says 12 dead in strike on Lebanon's primary healthcare center

The head of the World Health Organization has stated on Saturday that it has verified 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses were killed in a strike on the Bourj Qalaouiyeh primary healthcare center in Lebanon late on Friday.

"The killings in the last 24 hours of 14 health workers in southern Lebanon mark a tragic development in the escalating Middle East crisis," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X, noting that earlier in the day, two paramedics had been killed in an attack on a health facility in Al Sowana.

The killings in the last 24 hours of 14 health workers in southern #Lebanon mark a tragic development in the escalating Middle East crisis.@WHO has confirmed that 12 doctors, paramedics and nurses were killed in a strike late last night on the Bourj Qalaouiyeh primary… pic.twitter.com/SXazI9XBai

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 14, 2026

Israel has launched an extensive bombing campaign against Hezbollah, which has killed more than 770 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more, while Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets across the border.