BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Lack of sufficient funds is delaying the opening of a hospital for southern Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp.
About 46,000 refugees are at the Ain al-Hilweh camp just outside the port city of Sidon.
"The health problems in the camp are both disease and the environment," said Ibrahim Marshoud, the hospital director. "The streets are an environmental disease."
The $5 million hospital is short $2 million for beds and other basic medical equipment, the United Nations news agency IRIN reported Monday.
Marshoud said money is needed to purchase 36 beds, incubators, scanners and five kidney dialysis machines.
Donations to the Badr Foundation, which raises funds for the hospital, have stopped in recent months, the U.N Office of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Lebanon has the highest percentage of Palestinian refugees living in poverty.
