The Rafik Hariri Governmental Hospital has decided to bury 20 corpses that have been in its morgue since 2019 to make room for the bodies of victims of the Israeli attacks.
Dr. Jihad Saade, the hospital’s director-general, clarified that the majority of the corpses are those of foreigners, mainly domestic workers from Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. The hospital tried to contact their relatives through the embassies of their countries but was unsuccessful in reaching any of them. In this case, upon the instruction of the acting public prosecutor, Judge Jamal Hajjar, and after consulting religious authorities, the hospital assumes responsibility for their burial, despite the significant costs involved.
He added that hospital protocol states that bodies must be kept in the morgue for a maximum duration of six years. After this period, if the relatives do not come forward, the hospital has the right to dispose of them according to the law. Although some of these bodies have been in the hospital morgue for less than six years, the establishment needs to free up space to accommodate potential new corpses.
According to allegations reported by the media and refuted by Dr. Saade, there were supposedly 70 corpses in the hospital morgue.
