Lebanese Football suspended on news from Saint-Georges hospital in Hadath, southeast of Beirut. This is where the Lebanese national football team player, Céline Haidar, is in intensive care after being seriously injured by an Israeli airstrike which targeted the Chiyah area, in the southern suburbs of the capital.
Seriously injured in the head, the young hopeful was rushed to this suburban hospital where she was operated on successfully, even though she remains in a coma. “We still don’t know the extent of the damage to his brain, or its effects. We will only know when she comes out of the coma,” said Maroun Mahfoud, communications manager of the Lebanon national team.
“Céline is a highly regarded player and one of the best in the league. Many players are deeply affected by this incident, as evidenced by the large number of teammates waiting in hospital,” he continued.
After a year of cross-border violence, the Israeli army launched an intense aerial bombing campaign against Hezbollah on September 23 and a ground offensive in southern Lebanon on September 30. Israel wants to distance the Islamist movement from the border regions of southern Lebanon and stop its rocket attacks which have displaced some 60,000 residents of northern Israel. This Sunday, another Israeli raid left two dead and 13 injured, including two seriously, in the shopping district of Mar Elias, in the heart of Beirut.
