Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on Friday expressed in a statement its utter “condemnation and denunciation against targeting a El-Jabal Hospital in southern Lebanon, which resulted in the injury of a health worker and inflicted damage to the emergency department — in flagrant defiance of all the international laws and treaties.”

Earlier on Friday, an Israeli 155-caliber artillery shell landed in the courtyard of south Lebanon’s Mays El-Jabal Governmental Hospital without exploding, our reporter said. 

The Ministry’s statement stressed that "targeting health facilities and their workers constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and puts the lives of innocent and sick people at risk.” 

The statement went on to hold the Israeli authorities fully responsible for this unjustified action, which would have led to catastrophic results had the artillery shell that targeted the hospital exploded. 

"The Ministry of Public Health calls on the international community, United Nations institutions, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to carry out their duties to ensure the protection of medical facilities and their workers, and to ensure that such aggressive acts are not repeated. The Ministry also calls for a comprehensive and fair investigation to hold those responsible for these crimes accountable," the statement indicated.

“Protecting public health is one of the highest humanitarian duties, and it must be above any political or military considerations,” it statement concluded.