Two Lebanese soldiers were arrested on Wednesday after they stirred a social media uproar for slapping and pushing an ER doctor inside a hospital in the northern city of Tripoli.
A footage captured by CCTV late Tuesday, shows one soldier smacking the doctor in the face. Another soldier then shoves him in the back.
The assault took place after a man was brought to the city's Dar al-Shifaa hospital with a bullet wound following clashes between two families.
The video spread like bushfire on Lebanese social media.
"Doctors are human saviors and this is how they're protected?," wrote Tamara Rasamny on Instagram, in just one of hundreds of indignant reactions to flood social media.
The incident comes as Lebanon's health sector has received praise for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused only 26 recorded deaths so far but stretched hospitals to the brink.
Tripoli is an epicenter of the protest movement that erupted against the corruption and impunity of Lebanon's ruling elite in October.
The city is also among the regions hardest hit by Lebanon's spiraling economic crisis.
Last month, protests against growing economic hardship erupted in Tripoli and spread to other Lebanese cities.
The head of the local doctors syndicate, Salim Abi Saleh, condemned the assault, explaining that the physician wanted to treat the patient’s hemorrhage before allowing security forces to interrogate him.
"This is something we cannot tolerate," he told AFP, condemning what he described as "brutal behavior that tarnishes the military".
The army command swiftly announced the arrest of the two soldiers in connection with the incident, which it stressed "does not represent the institution".
An investigation has been launched into the incident, it added.
