Israelis Reportedly Storm S. Lebanon Hospital

Israeli troops stormed the main hospital in this southern Lebanese port Monday, beat up the director of the facility and arrested people who were lined up to donate blood for victims of an explosion, hospital officials said.

The officials said Israeli troops seized at least eight people at gunpoint as they tried to give blood for those wounded by the explosion in the nearby Shia Muslim village of Maarake, a center of anti-Israeli activity in southern Lebanon.

The officials said the Israelis, apparently searching for people from Maarake, then fired shots inside the hospital and severely beat its director, Dr. Ahmed Mroueh. One doctor said an old man was wounded and several dozen Muslims were seized.

Patients and doctors fled the building as “about 40 Israeli troops came charging in hysterically shooting into the ceiling,” hospital receptionist Ghada Hariri said.

In Tel Aviv, an Israeli military source said troops detained a number of people during an anti-Israeli demonstration in the hospital courtyard. He declined to say how many were arrested or to comment on the accusation that Mroueh was severely beaten.

Half an hour after the explosion, which killed at least 12 people in Maarake, more than 100 blood donors had gathered at the hospital. The Israelis sealed off the four-story building with armored personnel carriers for about three hours.

“People came from Tyre and the villages to give blood,” Dr. Mohammed Basma said. “The Israelis opened fire to clear the way and hit a 55-year-old man in the hand. They arrested 35 people, but we only know the names of eight.”

Hospital pharmacist Abu Khalil said the Israelis “looked for people from Maarake. Luckily they were taken elsewhere.”

Most of the victims were treated under the supervision of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, which has a French contingent in Maarake.

Hariri said she saw Israeli troops bundling would-be blood donors into civilian cars and slinging others on top of armored personnel carriers.

A Reuters correspondent saw three bound and blindfolded civilians on top of a personnel carrier being driven away from the hospital by three smiling Israeli soldiers.

Inside the hospital, Israeli troops broke down doors, smashed ceiling tiles and repeatedly struck medical director Mroueh on the head and other parts of his body, hospital officials said.

Mroueh’s uncle, Dr. Reda Mroueh, told a reporter later that his nephew was in bed, too badly injured to talk.

Reda Mroueh said the Israelis have raided the privately owned 60-bed Jabal Amel Hospital more than 20 times since their June, 1982, invasion.

“Every time we treat someone wounded by the Israelis, we have a problem with them,” he added.

“It’s a human necessity,” he declared. “Some patients are resistance fighters, but most are passers-by or women. There is no day when we don’t treat someone shot by an Israeli bullet.”