BEIRUT, 8 August 2006 — Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon is endangering efforts to help hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes in the face of the offensive, the UN’s refugee agency said yesterday.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it needed “humanitarian space to work in.” The UNHCR said that on Sunday it had sent a convoy of 15 trucks carrying supplies to the isolated port of Tyre in south Lebanon, the region bearing the brunt of the Israeli offensive.
Two passenger cars were bombed on the way, around 30 meters (yards) from the convoy, it said. “We cannot operate under such security risks, where innocent civilians get killed around us,” the UNHCR said. The agency said that bomb damage to Lebanon’s roads and bridges had “severely hampered” its operations.
“We need the pipeline to function to bring goods in so we can immediately distribute them to the people. These humanitarian corridors are needed.”
Close to one million Lebanese have fled their homes, particularly in the flash point south, and many are camped out in public buildings in safer areas of the country.
“The immediate needs are more water, better sanitation, sheets, pillows, soap,” said the UNHCR. “People are very frustrated and angry and the lack of privacy is creating social problems ... UNHCR will send plastic sheets to use as separations, so people can enjoy more privacy.”
Meanwhile, evacuations of thousands of Asian and Ethiopian migrant workers trapped in war-torn Lebanon have resumed, the International Organization for Migration said in Geneva yesterday. About 750 people a day are expected to travel to Syria in coach convoys over the next five days.
