The footage was captured by CCTV late Tuesday after a man was brought to the city's Dar al-Shifaa hospital with a bullet wound following clashes between two families.

The video, which spread like bushfire on Lebanese social media, shows one soldier smacking an ER doctor in the face. Another soldier then shoves him in the back.

"Doctors are human saviours 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 epicentre of the protest movement that erupted against the corruption and impunity of Lebanon's ruling elite last year.

The city is also among the regions hardest hit by Lebanon's spiralling economic crisis.

The head of the local doctors syndicate, Salim Abi Saleh, condemned the assault, explaining that the physician wanted to treat the patient's haemorrhage before allowing security forces to interrogate him.

"This is something we cannot tolerate," he told AFP, condemning what he described as "brutal behaviour that tarnishes the military".

The army swiftly announced the arrest of two soldiers in connection with the incident, which it stressed "does not represent the institution".