Beirut, Lebanon - October 21, 2024

A shipment of Chinese emergency medical aid arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Monday, as the nation grapples with casualties from ongoing cross-border conflicts with Israel.

The country is in urgent need of medical aid as the ongoing conflict has left 2,483 people killed and another 11,628 injured in Lebanon, the Lebanese health authorities said on Monday.

The 3,601 boxes contain anesthesia machines, tracheal intubation tubes, and surgical gowns. They arrived at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport after a flight of more than 11 hours.

Lebanon's health minister and China's ambassador participated in a handover ceremony of the first shipment of 58 tons of Chinese aid.

After clearing customs, the containers will be transported to a warehouse and then distributed.

Officials said more aid shipments will arrive from China soon.

Since Sept. 23, the Israeli army has launched intensive air attacks on Lebanon, marking a escalation with Hezbollah.

Shotlist:
Beirut, Lebanon - Oct 21, 2024:
1. Various of China's cargo plane, workers, supplies being unloaded;
2. Various of Qian, Abiad posing for photos, shaking hands;
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Firass Abiad, Lebanese Minister of Public Health (starting with shot 2):
"That is extremely important for our hospitals. As you know part of the war on Lebanon from Israel, they have targeted and put out of service more than 13 hospitals and have killed more than 150 health care workers. So, I think that this medical equipment will be very important for the other hospitals to allow hospitals to increase their beds capacity and to provide better quality of care for our patients.";
4. Small plane;
5. Flags of China, Lebanon;
6. Various of Qian Minjian, Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon, Firass Abiad, Lebanese Minister of Public Health at handover ceremony, shaking hands, posing for photos;
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Qian Minjian, Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon:
"China is delivering the medical aid to Lebanon in the hope that it will ease the pressure on the healthcare system in Lebanon and hopes that peace and security is restored and the Lebanese people can return to their homes at the soonest.";
8. Supplies in warehouse;
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Jawad Sbeity, coordinator, Lebanese Crisis Committee(partially overlaid with shot 10):
"They come here and they are sorted. We put them into an inventory, and this inventory is directly uploaded to the prime minister's website. After that we schedule all the items coming within 48 hours, and these items are dispatched to the governors.";
[SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
10. Forklift transporting supplies;
[SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE]
11. Various of supplies piling up;
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Jawad Sbeity, coordinator, Lebanese Crisis Committee:
"Everything concerned to medical aid, they come to this warehouse. They are sorted by the doctors from the ministry of health, and then they are dispatched from here to the hospitals, either private sector hospitals or public sector hospitals.";
13. Qian, Abiad watching supplies being unloaded;
14. Supplies being unloaded.

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