LEBANON: Wounded Lebanese boy being taken to France said to be first such evacuation

A 12-year-old boy who was wounded in Israeli shelling in Tyre will be evacuated to France for eye surgery, it was revealed on Wednesday (August 2). Doctors at Hamoud Hospital in Sidon said it would be the first case in which a Lebanese casualty of the fighting was being taken abroad for treatment. Ali Ghraeib was taken to Sidon 12 days ago after an eye injury from the bombardment. He received treatment in Sidon, but doctors say that his case needs further attention. "Now we are sending him for a reconstructive surgery. It is a very tough surgery because of the orbit of the eye was destroyed," said Doctor Ghassan Hamoud, the founder of the hospital where Ali was being treated. Hamoud said that Nazek Hariri, the wife of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, was touched by images of Ghraeib flashed across television sets and newspapers across the country. She called the hospital saying that she will sponsor Ghraeib's treatment in France. A group of French paramedics arrived in Sidon to take the boy to Beirut, where he is expected to leave for Paris within days. "We have come here to take the child who has a serious injury following the bombardment in the south," said one of the French Paramedics. Thousands of civilians have been wounded in the conflict, now in its fourth week. At least 643 people have been killed in Lebanon and 55 in Israel. Lebanon's health minister puts the toll at 762, including unrecovered bodies.

ITN Source | August 3, 2006

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