UNIFIL: Italian Blue Helmets support health care in Lebanon

(To UNIFIL)
31/08/22

The Italian contingent in Lebanon which has the leadership of the western sector of the United Nations mission in the Land of the Cedars, has conducted a series of activities in the context of civil and military cooperation projects in support of the local population.

The Italian Blue Helmets, currently coming from the “Aosta” brigade of the Italian Army, have donated a large number of health facilities to the Civil Hospital of Bint Jubayl, a city in the far south of the mission's area of ​​responsibility.

General Giuseppe Bertoncello, commander of the Joint Task Force Lebanon and of the Italian contingent, delivered to Dr. Tawfik Faraj, director of the Lebanese hospital, 145.000 surgical masks, 70.000 Ffp2 type masks, 72.000 surgical gloves, and over 100 liters of sanitizing gel. Similarly, the same type of sanitary material was delivered to the nearby municipality of Dibil, in the hands of the mayor Elie Youssef Louka who received the material, at the church of San Giorgio, run by Father Fali Felfleh.

This donation, coordinated by the specialists of the Multinational Cimic Group of Motta di Livenza (TV), is part of the intervention for the essential support to the civil environment in the health sector and is a further aid for the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic that Italy and UNIFIL (the United Nation Interim Force in Lebanon) lead to stem the Coronavirus.

Furthermore, in the days preceding the peacekeepers Italians have joined the blood donation campaign "Blood Drive" launched by the command of the UN mission in Lebanon and which has, among the pillars of its mandate established by resolution no. 1701 of 2006 of the Security Council, precisely that of support for the Lebanese population.

The collection of blood bags donated by the military at the Naqoura Military Hospital made it possible to meet the demands of the Lebanese Red Cross to maintain and replenish the reserves of the blood banks of local hospitals.

The activities carried out in the operational theater are conducted under the coordination and according to the directives given by the Interoperable Summit Operations Command (COVI), led by the general of the army corps Francesco Paolo Figliuolo.

COVI is the staff body of the Chief of Defense Staff, responsible for planning, coordinating and directing military operations, national and multinational joint exercises and related activities.