UN official appeals for Israel to not attack Lebanon’s ports, international airport

Published
0

Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the UN World Food Programme, said he is concerned that Lebanon’s ports and international airport might be taken out of service amid Israel’s ongoing attacks, which would restrict the amount of food entering the country, Al Jazeera reports.

“What I have seen and heard today is devastating, but the sense is that this can get much worse still, and that needs to be avoided,” he told The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut. “We have huge concerns and there are many, but one of them is indeed that we need the ports and we need the supply routes to continue to be able to operate.”

Israeli authorities have given “commitments” that ports and airports would not be taken out of commission in Lebanon, Skau said, but he said Lebanon “is a very changing environment” and he doesn’t “take anything for granted”.

Earlier this week, Lebanon’s transport minister said the country had received “assurances” but not guarantees that Israel would not target its only international airport, located in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Smoke billows in the background from the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs, as a Middle East Airlines plane awaits passengers at Beirut international airport on October 10. — AFP
Smoke billows in the background from the site of an Israeli air strike that targeted a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs, as a Middle East Airlines plane awaits passengers at Beirut international airport on October 10. — AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Farewell to arms?
Updated 03 Aug, 2026

Farewell to arms?

PALESTINIAN resistance group Hamas recently made a major concession by agreeing to give up its weapons. It should be...
Unplanned future
03 Aug, 2026

Unplanned future

A PROJECTION that Pakistan’s population could reach 400m by 2040 should not be treated as another dramatic number...
No more torture
03 Aug, 2026

No more torture

EVEN the best laws on the books are worth little unless the state shows the willingness to enforce them. This is...
Urban flooding
Updated 02 Aug, 2026

Urban flooding

THE warning from the disaster management and weather authorities that a new monsoon spell could trigger urban...
Fatal workplaces
02 Aug, 2026

Fatal workplaces

THE methane explosion near Quetta that killed 34 coal miners is the latest entry in Pakistan’s long register of...
Dual standards
02 Aug, 2026

Dual standards

IT appears that the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party has fallen foul of the Election Commission of Pakistan. A...