UN agencies have called for an urgent injection of funds to provide humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians in Lebanon. The children’s agency Unicef and the World Food Programme (WFP) said Israel’s ground and air offensive against Hizbullah has “triggered a catastrophe”. To address increasing needs, the agencies said, “We need additional funding, without conditionalities.”
“Around 1.2 million people have been affected with a significant impact on vulnerable communities,” they said in a joint statement. “Nearly 190,000 displaced individuals are currently sheltered in over 1,000 facilities, while hundreds of thousands more are seeking safety among family and friends.”
Hundreds also shelter in parks, empty lots and unfinished buildings. Lebanese authorities estimated that 270,000 people have crossed into Syria, which is in economic distress and does not have resources to deal with a mass influx.
Unicef is providing healthcare, water, hygiene kits, mattresses, blankets and trauma treatment in co-operation with the Lebanese government. The WFP is providing meals and cash for 200,000 recipients.
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There is concern that Israel intends to repeat its Gaza war strategy in Lebanon. WFP Lebanon director Matthew Hollingworth, who was previously based in Gaza, told the BBC that 400,000 children had been displaced. “Families have lost everything: jobs, homes, food,” and were without money, he said. There was the “same trauma, same fear” in Lebanon as in Gaza, and people were “terribly frightened”. In both, Israel was breaching international humanitarian law. “There is no war solution to this crisis,” Mr Hollingworth said.
The WFP had not had sufficient access to Gaza, he added. From October 1st nothing had reached northern Gaza until Monday when 30 WFP food trucks were permitted to enter. But he said this was not nearly enough. “We keep saying again, and again and again” aid must get in. “We are the voice of the people who are suffering in Gaza. We need to see change to be trusted.”
In Lebanon, Israel has followed the Gaza practice of issuing evacuation orders for towns and villages where Israeli forces operate. The UN refugee agency’s Middle East director Rema Jamous Imseis has said a quarter of Lebanon is now affected by Israeli evacuation orders. In Gaza, Philippe Lazzarini, head of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said 86 percent of the enclave is under evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister. Najib Mikati, condemned Wednesday’s Israeli air strikes on Nabatieh city, which killed mayor Ahmad Kahil and five council members who were “discussing the city’s services and relief situation”, he said. Provincial capital Nabatieh has given refuge to families fleeing the south.
Many have left since Saturday when Israel destroyed Nabatieh’s centuries-old heritage souks, replicating attacks on Gaza’s Old City, historic churches, and mosques. On Tuesday Israel struck the southern Lebanese village of Qana (said to be Cana of the New Testament), killing 15.
An Israeli strike on a Fijian Unifil post at Qana in 1996 killed 106 and wounded 116 out of 745 Lebanese civilians sheltering there.
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