TRIPOLI, Lebanon: A brief sit-in was held Wednesday in support of a detained nurse from al-Youssef Hospital and a receptionist from Rahhal Hospital in the northern Akkar district.

But the protest was called off after the two were released following interrogations over the recent death of a four-month-old boy, Abdel-Raouf Mounir al-Houli, who was denied admission to both hospitals.

The hospitals had told the family that there was no empty bed for him.

While hospital officials admitted they denied the boy access, they said they urged the father to rush him to the emergency room until they find an empty hospital bed elsewhere in the north, but added that the father insisted on taking the boy home.