0
GENEVA, Aug 8: The United Nations on Tuesday suspended attempts to send relief to southern Lebanon because of a lack of safety assurances from Israeli forces, a spokeswoman said.
“The Israeli forces were warning today saying that there shouldn’t be any vehicles in the southern part of Lebanon,” said Christian Berthiaume from the World Food Program.
“They had exempted humanitarian convoys,” Ms Berthiaume said, but added: “We decided not to go because there has been heavily shelling during in the past 24 hours. It’s been quite heavy.”
WFP and other UN relief agencies said they were frustrated over the difficulty of moving aid into Lebanon, and that what they had brought in so far was not enough.
“There are two words that sum up where the humanitarian situation is, and these are ‘not enough’,” said Wivina Belmonte from the UN Children’s Fund. “Fuel supplies are not enough, hospitals are on life support, supplies of humanitarian goods trying to get into the country are not enough.”
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which had held off truck convoys into Lebanon since last Thursday, said a convoy of six trucks was able to reach Beirut on Tuesday with its load of thousands of blankets, mattresses, tents and kitchen sets.
ICRC REACTION: In Tyre, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger said on Tuesday it was vital to reestablish access to south Lebanon, isolated after a devastating Israeli offensive.
“Our main concern is access to south Lebanon,” he told reporters which he could only reach after walking along a thin log to cross the Litani River after two bridges were destroyed by Israeli strikes.
Desperately needed humanitarian aid has not been able to reach those in the south after Israeli strikes destroyed dozens of roads and bridges in the area.
EVACUATION: The Israeli government on Tuesday began evacuating more than 15,000 people living under Hezbollah rocket attacks in the north of the country where 36 civilians have been killed.
Cabinet secretary Yisrael Maimon, who avoided using the word ‘evacuation’, said ‘we have decided to allow residents from the north to take several days of vacation across Israel’.
The plan, under which over 15,000 people will be sent to hotels at government expense for several days, was aimed at ‘refreshing the residents sitting in shelters’, Mr Maimon told army radio.
Some 2,000 elderly citizens in northern Israel have already been transferred to hotels, the government said in a statement.
Many of Israelis living in the north have already fled the area since the start of the conflict.
—Agencies
